You would think that college students who had blackouts, missed classes or got into fights after a binge drinking episode would try to cut down on their alcohol consumption. But many of them continue to binge drink because they perceive the positive social benefits of drinking to outweigh all of the negative consequences.They simply do not associate their drinking with the negative consequences, research has found, until those negative effects become too bad to ignore.
University of Washington psychologists conducted an online survey of 491 college students about their past-year drinking. They were asked if they had experienced any of 35 different negative consequences of drinking as well as 14 positive experiences associated with drinking.
Negative vs. Positive Effects
The negative consequences included having blackouts, getting into fights, having hangovers, missing classes, missing work, losing belongings, having belongings stolen and having sex they later regretted.
The positive effects included better conversations, improved ability to tell jokes, more energy to stay up late partying, improved dancing and improved sexual encounters.
The students were also asked about how likely all of these drinking consequences would happen again and how positive or negative they were.
Rose-Colored Beer Goggles
Generally, the college students perceived their positive drinking experiences as more positive than they were and more likely to happen again. On the other hand, they perceived their negative experiences as less negative than they were and said they were not likely to happen again.
The researchers called it seeing through "rose-colored beer goggles."
"This study suggest why some people can experience a lot of bad consequences of drinking but not change their behavior," said co-author Kevin King in a news release. "People think, 'It's not going to happen to me' or 'I'll never drink that much again.' They do not seem to associate their own heavy drinking with negative consequences."
Lead author Diane Logan agreed that college students' perception of the positive social effects of drinking ignores reality.
It Has to Get Really Bad
"It's as though they think that the good effects of drinking keep getting better and more likely to happen again," said Diane Logan.
The researchers did find that only those students who had experienced the highest levels of negative consequences, or who had more bad experiences, perceived the negative consequences as more negative and more likely to occur again.
"Until high levels of negative consequences are experienced, participants aren't deterred by the ill effects of drinking," Logan wrote.
Currently, most intervention programs focus on avoiding the negative effects of drinking. The researchers suggest that teaching students how to develop social skills without alcohol might have more impact.
Source: King, K. et al. "Rose-colored beer goggles: The relation between experiencing alcohol consequences and perceived likelihood and valence." Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 30 May 2011. More About College Drinking:
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