An experimental investigation into the effect of negative affect on the behavioral economic demand for alcohol.

Dora, Jonas; Kuczynski, Adam M.; Schultz, Megan Elizabeth; Acuff, Samuel F.; Murphy, James G.; King, Kevin M.

doi:10.1037/adb0000823

Cited by 5 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 45 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Next, given that recent research indicates that drinking in everyday life often seems to follow high positive affect (Dora, Kuczynski, et al, 2022; Dora, Schultz, et al, 2022), we repeated our analyses comparing the positive to the neutral mood induction. Unsurprisingly (given the small effect of the positive induction on mood), these models provided no evidence for an Induction × Sample interaction on drift rate and boundary separation associated with alcohol (BF 01 [drift rate] = 5.63, BF 01 [boundary separation] = 19.55) and food (BF 01 [drift rate] = 1.49, BF 10 [boundary separation] = 2.12), with Bayes factors ranging from strong evidence against our hypothesis to inconclusive.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the contradiction between experimental findings (Bresin et al, 2018) and findings from ecological momentary assessment research (Dora, Kuczynski, et al, 2022) regarding the effect of negative affect on alcohol use, one way to improve our understanding of negative reinforcement is to improve our understanding of the decision to drink alcohol. The VBDM perspective posits that this decision is preceded by an evaluation of the momentary reinforcement value of alcohol compared to available substance-free alternatives (Berkman et al, 2017; Field et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It may be that positive moods are generally more difficult to induce in laboratory settings because the stimuli that induce positive moods are more idiosyncratic than those used to induce negative moods (Ellard et al, 2012). Recent research has indicated repeatedly that positive affect is a stronger predictor of alcohol use in everyday life than negative affect (Dora, Kuczynski, et al, 2022; Dora, Schultz, et al, 2022; Dvorak et al, 2018; Russell et al, 2020; Stevens et al, 2021). Unfortunately, we were not able to provide a strong test whether heavy and light drinkers react to a positive mood induction in different ways due to the limited success of the positive mood induction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, we recently showed convincingly in a meta-analysis of individual participant data from over 12,000 participants observed on over 350,000 days that negative affect is not associated with same-day alcohol use in everyday life (Dora, Kuczynski, et al, 2022). Instead, participants were more likely to drink on days they reported higher positive affect.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given that our recent meta-analysis indicated robust evidence for positive affect predicting alcohol use (Dora, Kuczynski, et al, 2022), we additionally explored whether drift rate and boundary separation associated with alcohol and food in heavy-drinking and light-drinking individuals, respectively, are sensitive to a positive mood induction compared to a neutral mood induction.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Modeling the value-based decision to consume alcohol in response to emotional experiences.

Dora¹,

Copeland²,

Field³

et al. 2023

Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Evidence for negative reinforcement of alcohol use is mixed; one possible explanation for this is that people make value-based decisions whether to regulate their emotions via alcohol or an alternative, and only drink-to-cope when alcohol's reinforcing value is larger than that of available alternatives. If this is the case, immediately following a negative emotional event, the value for alcohol should increase primarily in heavy drinkers, whereas in light drinkers, alternative ways of coping should be valued. We conducted a preregistered online experiment (N = 200) with a mixed design (between: heavy vs. light drinker; within: negative/neutral/positive mood induction). In each of three experimental sessions, participants first provided value ratings for a set of alcohol and food stimuli. Second, they were subjected to a mood induction. Third, they made forced choices between either two alcohol or food stimuli. We then applied a drift-diffusion model to these data and tested whether alcohol-and food-related decision-making parameters are differentially affected following the mood inductions in heavy and light drinkers. In preregistered analyses, we found that heavy drinkers did not value alcohol more but valued food less after the negative mood induction. Exploratory analyses uncovered that both heavy-and light-drinking participants valued alcohol more following the negative mood induction if they reported high alcohol craving at the start of the session. Collectively, these results provide some evidence for the idea that drinking-to-cope might be a value-based decision-making process. Public Health SignificanceThis preregistered study suggests that people who self-report higher weekly alcohol consumption might not value alcohol more, but an alternative (comforting food) less immediately following a negative emotional event, and that people (irrelevant of their weekly alcohol use) value alcohol more if they report high alcohol craving. Thus, future research should test further whether the momentary relative valuation of alcohol compared to available alternatives might explain when and for whom alcohol is reinforcing in the face of negative affect.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Modeling the value-based decision to consume alcohol in response to emotional experiences.

Dora¹,

Copeland²,

Field³

et al. 2023

Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

An experimental investigation into the effect of negative affect on the behavioral economic demand for alcohol.

Dora,

Kuczynski,

Schultz

et al. 2024

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: It is hypothesized that alcohol use is reinforcing when used as a strategy to cope with negative affect. Although the evidence for this hypothesis in observational data is weak, some experimental evidence suggests that the behavioral economic demand for alcohol increases immediately following a negative emotional event. We hypothesized that people show a higher demand for alcohol following negative (vs. neutral) mood inductions and that this effect is stronger in people who report heavier drinking compared to people who report lighter drinking as well as stronger on days characterized by higher coping motives and negative urgency. Method: 309 college students who reported recent alcohol consumption (M AUDIT = 6.86) completed the alcohol purchase task after being subjected to 12 mood inductions (six negative, six neutral, order randomized) on 12 separate days. Results: In our preregistered analyses, we found no evidence that the behavioral economic demand for alcohol was elevated following negative mood inductions. The mood inductions in our study were not as strong as has been reported in previous research, weakening the preregistered inferences. In exploratory analyses performed on a subset of the data in which the mood inductions worked as intended, demand was higher following negative mood inductions. Conclusions: The results of this study are not conclusive. In light of previous research, we consider these data to slightly increase our confidence that demand for alcohol is increased immediately following a negative emotional event. Public Health Significance StatementThis experiment tested in a nonclinical sample of college students whether the momentary reinforcing value of alcohol increases following negative emotional experiences. The results were not conclusive as we learned that repeatedly manipulating people's mood outside of the laboratory does not work as well as doing it once under controlled conditions. We can conclude that when the mood inductions worked as intended, the demand for alcohol increased when people were in a negative affective state.

show abstract

The daily association between affect and alcohol use: A meta-analysis of individual participant data.

Dora¹,

Piccirillo²,

Foster³

et al. 2023

Psychological Bulletin

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Influential psychological theories hypothesize that people consume alcohol in response to the experience of both negative and positive emotions. Despite two decades of daily diary and ecological momentary assessment research, it remains unclear whether people consume more alcohol on days they experience higher negative and positive affects in everyday life. In this preregistered meta-analysis, we synthesized the evidence for these daily associations between affect and alcohol use. We included individual participant data from 69 studies (N = 12,394), which used daily and momentary surveys to assess the affect and the number of alcoholic drinks consumed. Results indicate that people are not more likely to drink on days they experience high negative affect but are more likely to drink and drink heavily on days high in positive affect. People self-reporting a motivational tendency to drink-to-cope and drink-to-enhance consumed more alcohol but not on days they experienced higher negative and positive affects. Results were robust across different operationalizations of affect, study designs, study populations, and individual characteristics. These findings challenge the long-held belief that people drink more alcohol following increase in negative affect. Integrating these findings under different theoretical models and limitations of this field of research, we collectively propose an agenda for future research to explore open questions surrounding affect and alcohol use.

show abstract

An experimental investigation into the effect of negative affect on the behavioral economic demand for alcohol.

Cited by 5 publications

References 45 publications

Modeling the value-based decision to consume alcohol in response to emotional experiences.

Modeling the value-based decision to consume alcohol in response to emotional experiences.

An experimental investigation into the effect of negative affect on the behavioral economic demand for alcohol.

The daily association between affect and alcohol use: A meta-analysis of individual participant data.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About