The influence of negative urgency and mood inductions on alcohol cognitions

Abstract

BackgroundNegative urgency (NU), the tendency to act rashly during negative emotional states, is a robust risk factor for alcohol misuse that is posited to function in part through alcohol‐related cognitions. Nonetheless, relatively little research has examined mood‐based fluctuations in such cognitions, which could help to explain how the trait of NU translates to impulsive alcohol‐related behaviors. We examined how NU impacted several alcohol cognitions (positive/negative alcohol expectancies, positive/negative alcohol valuations, and alcohol craving for positive/negative emotional reinforcement) before and after negative, neutral, or positive mood inductions. We hypothesized that NU would predict greater and more favorable endorsement of alcohol and its effects following negative (vs. positive or neutral) mood induction.MethodsParticipants (N = 428) were southern‐midwestern college students recruited for an online experiment. Following the provision of consent, participants rated NU and preinduction alcohol cognitions, and were then randomly assigned to one of three (negative, neutral, or positive) mood inductions; subsequently, postinduction alcohol‐cognition ratings were immediately obtained. We conducted six robust multilevel linear models (one per DV) examining NU's influence on within‐person changes in alcohol cognitions across each mood induction.ResultsNo three‐way interactions were identified and only one two‐way interaction involving NU was identified. There were main effects across mood induction conditions and time points for NU predicting greater endorsement of positive and negative alcohol outcome expectancies, and greater alcohol craving for positive and negative emotional reinforcement.ConclusionsGreater NU predicts greater perceived likelihood of alcohol's effects, alongside greater desire for mood improvement from alcohol. The absence of three‐way interactive effects indicates NU's influence on mood‐dependent fluctuations in alcohol cognitions may manifest over longer timescales (e.g., months and years), involve alternative cognitive processes (e.g., drinking motives and implicit alcohol cognitions), and apply more broadly to desires for mood improvement than purely negative emotional reinforcement.