Friday, March 07, 2008

Get drunk without alcohol?

In a series of studies in the 1970s and ’80s, psychologists at the University of Washington put more than 300 students into a study room outfitted like a bar with mirrors, music and a stretch of polished pine. The researchers served alcoholic drinks, most often icy vodka tonics, to some of the students and nonalcoholic ones, usually icy tonic water, to others. The drinks looked and tasted the same, and the students typically drank five in an hour or two.
The studies found that people who thought they were drinking alcohol behaved exactly as aggressively, or as affectionately, or as merrily as they expected to when
drunk. “No significant difference between those who got alcohol and those who
didn’t,” Alan Marlatt, the senior author, said. “Their behavior was totally
determined by their expectations of how they would behave.”

More here.

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