"What's going on here?" the policeman asked as he stepped onto the porch. "They've been fighting," Tom's sister said. I could have wrung her neck myself! I explained the situation to the officer and accompanied him into the house to have a talk with Tom.
Tom was all "Yes sir" and "No sir" to the policeman and as contrite as could be, agreeing not to cause any more disturbance. I realized then that it wasn't that he was too drunk to control his behavior, he had merely chosen not to, until he saw the police car.
Don't Call Me...
As I left I told his mother to call 9-1-1 the next time, don't call me.Now there is a scientific study to backs up my observations those many years ago. Canadian researchers have found that drinkers can "sober up" quickly with the right motivation and conclude that being intoxicated is no defense if someone commits a crime.
Muriel Vogel-Sprott and colleagues from the University of Waterloo in Ontario tested this idea by asking volunteers to press a button when prompted by a computer screen. However, they were told not to respond if a red light also appeared.
Those who were given alcohol for the experiment were more likely to press the button regardless, just as a drinker is more likely to punch someone even if told to stop, Vogel-Sprott said in a news release[/link].
Can if They Want To
The researchers found that drinkers offered a small reward, such as verbal approval, performed as well as sober volunteers. Vogel-Sprott said this means that people who've been drinking can control their behavior if they want to."Drinkers can sometimes display foolish, inappropriate or harmful behavior that they would not exhibit when sober," said Muriel Vogel-Sprott in a study published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. "This is commonly attributed to the effects of alcohol, for example, explaining away the behavior by saying 'I couldn't stop myself' or 'I didn't mean it.'"
Vogel-Sprott found that a moderate dose of alcohol selectively diminished intentional control when social drinkers' behavior had no consequence. However, when performance under alcohol had some 'payoff' -- for example, money or verbal approval -- intentional control was maintained.
"Was the behavior due to alcohol," asked Vogel-Sprott, "or was it intentional? On one hand, it appears that alcohol can impair cognitive processes controlling inhibition and intentional behavior. But, on the other hand, the intensity of impairment may also depend upon the characteristics of the drinker and the consequences of behavior in the drinking situation."
The Vogel-Sprott research dealt with subjects who had only a small amount of alcohol before the testing, and did not address highly intoxicated individuals.
