The effect of alcohol on mood among males drinking with a platonic friend.

BACKGROUND Despite the social nature of most drinking experiences, prior work has largely failed to incorporate social context into the study of alcohol's effects on emotion. The present study provides an initial test of the effect of alcohol on mood among platonic friends drinking together in a non-stress setting. We hypothesized that subjects would report more positive postdrink mood after consuming alcohol than after consuming a nonalcoholic control beverage. METHODS Dyads of platonic male friends (n = 36; 55.55% White, 38.88% Asian, 5.55% Black) attended two laboratory-based experimental sessions, wherein their drink conditions (alcohol vs. no alcohol control) were randomized by dyad and counter-balanced across sessions. They reported their mood before and after consuming their beverages together, using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and an 8-item mood measure. RESULTS As hypothesized, alcohol enhanced positive mood ( β  = 0.26, p < 0.01). Although in the expected direction, the effect of alcohol on negative mood was not significant ( β  = -0.12, p = 0.17). Post hoc analyses revealed that alcohol yielded greater increases in both stimulation ( β=0.26 , p = 0.00) and sedation ( β=0.40 , p = 0.00) as compared to the control condition. CONCLUSION This study highlights the positive mood-enhancing and broader subjective effects of alcohol when drinking with a platonic friend and encourages further consideration of friendship contexts in the examination of alcohol's effects when developing models of the etiology of alcohol use disorder.