The impact of own and others’ alcohol consumption on social contagion following a collaborative memory task

Abstract

When one person alters his or her recollection of an event to be consistent with another person's erroneous account of the same event, social contagion has occurred. In two studies, we examined whether alcohol consumption influences the degree to which people engage in social contagion. In Study 1, participants consumed alcohol, an alcohol placebo, or a soft drink and then completed a collaborative recall test with a confederate who consumed a soft drink. In Study 2, participants consumed a soft drink and then completed a collaborative recall test with a confederate they believed had consumed a soft drink or alcohol (but no alcohol was ever consumed). In both studies, the confederate made scripted errors during the collaborative recall test. On post-collaborative individual recall and recognition tests, participants in both studies engaged in social contagion by including the confederate's errors in their own recollection. In Study 1, the drink participants consumed had no influence on social contagion. In Study 2, participants were less likely to engage in social contagion after collaborating with a confederate who had seemingly consumed alcohol. That same confederate was viewed as less accurate, trustworthy, and credible, which likely made participants less inclined to engage in social contagion.

Intoxicated eyewitnesses: The effect of a fully balanced placebo design on event memory and metacognitive control

“…Schreiber Compo et al () sought to use the hypervigilance hypothesis to explain increased DK responding in placebo participants but did not find that consumption of a placebo influenced correct memory performance. This is in line with other research that failed to find superior performance in placebo participants (Crossland et al, ; Schreiber Compo et al, ; Thorley & Christiansen, ; Yuille & Tollestrup, ). The present research sought to further explore alcohol expectancy effects by using a fully balanced placebo design.…”

“…The majority of lab‐based studies have found that alcohol intoxication does not affect recall accuracy (Crossland, Kneller, & Wilcock, ; Hagsand, Roos af Hjelmsäter, Granhag, Fahlke, & Söderpalm Gordh, , ; Hildebrand Karlén, Roos af Hjelmsäter, Fahlke, Granhag, & Söderpalm Gordh, , ; La Rooy, Nicol, & Terry, ; Schreiber Compo et al, ). Some studies have shown that as alcohol dosage increases, recall quantity decreases (Altman, Schreiber Compo, McQuiston, Hagsand, & Cervera, ; Flowe, Takarangi, Humphries, & Wright, ; Hagsand et al, ; Hildebrand Karlén et al, ; Thorley & Christiansen, ; Yuille & Tollestrup, ), whereas other studies failed to show an effect of alcohol on recall completeness (Crossland et al, ; LaRooy et al, ; Schreiber Compo et al, ). In addition to dosage, other important factors to consider are recall format and gender.…”

Advancing the Science of Collaborative Problem Solving

“…Moreover, during collaborative discussion, group members may introduce information that is inaccurate. A number of studies have demonstrated that such inaccurate contributions often go undetected and become encoded by group members and used on subsequent tasks, resulting in an effect called the social contagion of memory (Andrews & Rapp, 2014; Davis & Meade, 2013; Roediger, Meade, & Bergman, 2001; Thorley & Christiansen, 2018).…”

An archival analysis of sexual assault victims’ age estimation accuracy when describing stranger offenders

“…Their finding, however, must be treated with caution as alcohol consumption was a binary yes/no variable, meaning the volume consumed, and its impact upon age estimation accuracy, was not considered. High levels of intoxication during an event can impair recollection of it (Read, Yuille, & Tollestrup, 1992;Thorley & Christiansen, 2018;Van Oorsouw & Merckelbach, 2012;Van Oorsouw, Merckelbach, & Smeets, 2015), although the ability to remember faces is often unaffected (see Altman, Schreiber Compo, McQuiston, Hagsand & Cervera, In Press). Whether or not high levels of intoxication can impair sexual assault victims' ability to recollect offenders' ages is unknown but warrants examination.…”