Drinking is different! Examining the role of locus of control for alcohol consumption

Abstract

Locus of control (LOC) measures how much an individual believes in the causal relationship between her own actions and her life’s outcomes. While earlier literature has shown that an increasing internal LOC is associated with increased health-conscious behavior in domains such as smoking, exercise or diets, we find that drinking seems to be different. Using very informative German panel data, we extend and generalize previous findings and find a significant positive association between having an internal LOC and the probability of occasional and regular drinking for men and women. An increase in an individual’s LOC by one standard deviation increases the probability of occasional or regular drinking on average by 3.4% for men and 6.9% for women. Using a decomposition method, we show that roughly a quarter of this association can be explained by differences in the social activities between internal and external individuals.

Socio-Cognitive Determinants of Lifestyle Behavior in the Context of Dementia Risk Reduction: A Population-Based Study in the Netherlands

“…Notably, respondents who drank alcohol perceived high levels of control while underestimating their consumption compared to others. These findings are consistent with earlier indicators that drinkers are often overconfident about their ability to control alcohol intake [ 45 ], while they overestimate others’ and underestimate their own consumption levels [ 46 ].…”

Childhood adversity and energy poverty

“…Awaworyi Churchill and Smyth (2021a) find that being more internal on LoC is associated with a lower likelihood of being in energy poverty. One reason is that those who are more internal on LoC will have higher human capital, invest more in general training, have higher earnings and higher savings (Ahn, 2015;Andrisani, 1977;Caliendo and Hennecke, 2020;Cobb-Clark et al, 2014;Coleman and DeLeire, 2003;Groves, 2005). The other reason is that those who are more internal on LoC are likely to be more proactive in taking positive steps to lower their overall expenditure on energy.…”

Performance pay and alcohol use in Germany

“…On the one hand, investments in long-term health may involve reduced alcohol consumption (Chiteji, 2010). On the other hand, persons with an internal locus of control may tend to underestimate the future risks of alcohol use resulting in an increased consumption (Caliendo & Hennecke, 2020).…”