Expectancies, alcohol, and sexual arousal in male social drinkers.

Abstract

A total of 40 undergraduate male volunteers, all social drinkers between the ages of 18 and 22, were randomly assigned to one of two expectation conditions in which they were led to believe that the beverage they were administered contained either vodka and tonic or tonic only. For half of the subjects in each expectation condition, the beverage actually contained vodka; the others drank only tonic. After their drinks, measures of penile tumescence were taken from subjects using a penile strain gauge during two erotic films, one depicting a heterosexual interaction, the other, a male homosexual interaction. Although 2X2 analyses of variance failed to reveal any effect of alcohol per se, there were significant effects of expectation on penile tumescence during both the heterosexual and homosexual films. Subjects who believed that they had consumed an alcoholic beverage manifested significantly greater sexual arousal than those believing they had consumed a nonalcoholic beverage, regardless of the actual contents of their drinks. Although no consistent effects were observed on additional measures of sexual arousal, including the Thematic Apperception Test, the Word Association Test, and forehead skin temperature, there was a significant positive correlation between self-report measures of sexual arousal and penile tumescence.The authors would like to express their appreciation to Elizabeth Anne Kirschling, Lorraine O'Brien, and Beverly Wojciehowski, the nursing staff of the Alcohol Behavior Research Laboratory, for their assistance in conducting this study. The authors also wish to thank Harry Heermans for his role in the data collection, Wayne Kashinsky for suggesting computer-sampling techniques and for programming the computer, and Peter E. Nathan for his support and encouragement.Requests for reprints should be sent to G.

Alcohol and Disinhibition

“…r ! 0.58 [4], which was supported by Heiman et al [106]. The correlation between vaginal engorgement and subjective sexual arousal was shown to be between 0.54 and 0.6 when looking at an erotic film.…”

“…However, sexual arousal measured by TAT is not identical with subjective arousal and even less with objective arousal. Wilson and Lawson [3,4] showed that sexual themes on TAT do not correlate with objective measures of sexual responses.…”

“…The most common of these behavior-affecting drugs is ethanol, below referred to as alcohol. Alcohol consumption correlates positively with changes in many social behaviors such as aggression [1,2], sexual behavior [3][4][5], and social assertiveness [6]. There are four hypotheses proposing different mediating mechanisms between alcohol drinking and changed social behavior.…”

Alcohol and erectile response: The effects of high dosage in the context of demands to maximize sexual arousal.

“…Limitations include the lack of an alcohol expectancy (placebo) condition, the moderate level drinking status and young age of the sample, and the prospect of volunteer bias. Previous work has shown that expectancy set (the belief that one has been drinking) enhances men's selfreported and physiological arousal independent of low-dosage intoxication (Wilson & Lawson, 1976). Because of the difficulty of convincing placebo participants that they have received a high dose of alcohol, and because our specific interest was in high dosage effects, we did not evaluate alcohol expectancy set or individual differences in a priori alcohol expectancies.…”

Later That Night: Descending Alcohol Intoxication and Men's Sexual Arousal

“…Limitations of this study include the lack of an alcohol expectancy (placebo) condition and the prospect of volunteer bias. Previous work has shown that expectancy set (the belief that one has been drinking) enhances men's genital and self-reported arousal independent of low-dosage intoxication (Wilson & Lawson, 1976). Because of our specific interest in high-dosage effects and descending limb effects, we did not evaluate alcohol expectancy set.…”