Does Alcohol Catch the Eye? Investigating Young Adults' Attention to Alcohol Consumption

I spy with my little eye: An eye-tracking study examining adolescents' attention to alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages in Instagram stories

Social media users are frequently exposed to alcohol images on Instagram, which in turn influences their own alcohol behaviors. Yet, it is unclear what factors drive attention to alcohol cues. In an eye-tracking study (N = 108; Mage = 16.54), we examined adolescents' attention to Instagram Stories depending on: (a) the type of beverage depicted (beer vs water), (b) the character-product interaction portrayed (CPI: peers in images shown consuming [high CPI] vs holding beverages [low CPI]) and, (c) participant's own susceptibility (high vs low-risk alcohol drinker). Our results illustrated that adolescents allocated an equal amount of attention to beer and water depicted in Instagram images. Furthermore, they devoted more attention to Instagram images wherein peers were shown consuming water and beer (high CPI) compared to those wherein peers were holding these beverages (low CPI). Surprisingly, high-risk alcohol drinkers were more responsive to both beer and water cues than low-risk drinkers. This was particularly the case for Instagram images with high CPI. These findings have implications for how health cues on Instagram are attended to and processed.

Short-term mating orientation as a predictor of alcohol use and risky sexual behavior

OBJECTIVES

Sexual Strategies Theory suggests people fall on a continuum between having short-term mating orientation (STMO) and long-term mating orientation. One way STMO individuals signal mating goals is via risky drinking. The current study therefore aims to investigate drinks per week (DPW) as a mediator between STMO and risky sexual behavior (RSB), with gender as a moderator between STMO and DPW.

PARTICIPANTS

Undergraduate students (N = 300) from a Midwestern university during Fall 2019.

METHOD

Participants completed questionnaires assessing STMO, DPW, and RSB frequency.

RESULTS

A moderated-mediation model indicated DPW significantly mediated the relationship between STMO and RSB. Positive associations were found among all three variables. Gender was not a moderator between STMO and DPW.

CONCLUSIONS

Mating orientation was a correlate of alcohol use and RSB for women and men, contributing to the literature identifying STMO as an indicator of those in need of substance use and RSB intervention.

Eye Tracking Studies Exploring Cognitive and Affective Processes among Alcohol Drinkers: a Systematic Review and Perspectives

Acute alcohol intoxication and alcohol use disorders are characterized by a wide range of psychological and cerebral impairments, which have been widely explored using neuropsychological and neuroscientific techniques. Eye tracking has recently emerged as an innovative tool to renew this exploration, as eye movements offer complementary information on the processes underlying perceptive, attentional, memory or executive abilities. Building on this, the present systematic and critical literature review provides a comprehensive overview of eye tracking studies exploring cognitive and affective processes among alcohol drinkers. Using PRISMA guidelines, 36 papers that measured eye movements among alcohol drinkers were extracted from three databases (PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus). They were assessed for methodological quality using a standardized procedure, and categorized based on the main cognitive function measured, namely perceptive abilities, attentional bias, executive function, emotion and prevention/intervention. Eye tracking indexes showed that alcohol-related disorders are related to: (1) a stable pattern of basic eye movement impairments, particularly during alcohol intoxication; (2) a robust attentional bias, indexed by increased dwell times for alcohol-related stimuli; (3) a reduced inhibitory control on saccadic movements; (4) an increased pupillary reactivity to visual stimuli, regardless of their emotional content; (5) a limited visual attention to prevention messages. Perspectives for future research are proposed, notably encouraging the exploration of eye movements in severe alcohol use disorders and the establishment of methodological gold standards for eye tracking measures in this field.

Evidence for incentive salience sensitization as a pathway to alcohol use disorder

The incentive salience sensitization (ISS) theory of addiction holds that addictive behavior stems from the ability of drugs to progressively sensitize the brain circuitry that mediates attribution of incentive salience (IS) to reward-predictive cues and its behavioral manifestations. In this article, we establish the plausibility of ISS as an etiological pathway to alcohol use disorder (AUD). We provide a comprehensive and critical review of evidence for: (1) the ability of alcohol to sensitize the brain circuitry of IS attribution and expression; and (2) attribution of IS to alcohol-predictive cues and its sensitization in humans and non-human animals. We point out gaps in the literature and how these might be addressed. We also highlight how individuals with different alcohol subjective response phenotypes may differ in susceptibility to ISS as a pathway to AUD. Finally, we discuss important implications of this neuropsychological mechanism in AUD for psychological and pharmacological interventions attempting to attenuate alcohol craving and cue reactivity.

Operational Sex Ratio Predicts Binge Drinking Across U.S. Counties

Previous research suggests that binge drinking among young men serves as a "costly signal" to potential mates, such that the binge drinker is capable of bearing the harmful consequences of alcohol consumption. Here, we propose that binge drinking among young adults is conditionally dependent upon the signaler's willingness to take risks, which is influenced by the local operational sex ratio (OSR). Using archived binge drinking estimates from 2009 to 2012 and Census Bureau records of OSRs, we tested the relationship between OSR and binge drinking rates at the county level across 3,143 U.S. counties against hypotheses drawn from evolutionary theory. Results from our mixed-effects models revealed that a higher overall OSR (i.e., more eligible men compared to women) was associated with higher male binge drinking rates but lower female binge drinking rates. A higher OSR particularly in the 20-29 and 50+ age groups predicted higher male binge drinking rates but lower female binge drinking rates. Our findings generally support predictions derived from evolutionary theory and suggest that binge drinking may function as a costly sexual signal, conditionally regulated by age and the local sex ratio.