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Original Article

Beliefs About the Effects of Alcohol on the Personality of Oneself and Others

Published Online:June 04, 2012https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000084

Abstract

The distinction between the effects people expect alcohol to have on themselves and on others is poorly understood. This study employs the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality for investigating these two types of beliefs. Participants responded to short personality questionnaires with instructions to describe themselves and an average young man while moderately intoxicated; they also described their actual and desired personality trait levels. Intoxication was believed to decrease Conscientiousness and increase Neuroticism as well as Extraversion for actors as well as observers alike, while predictions for Openness and Agreeableness depended on the rating target. Profile similarity analysis revealed that, although both types of beliefs reflected socially undesirable trait levels in domains other than Extraversion, actor-expectations were less undesirable than observer-expectations. Implications of the findings suggest that the FFM can be profitably used to study intoxication-related beliefs.

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