Dyads experience over confidence in hand‐eye coordination skills after placebo alcohol

Abstract

An experiment tested the effects of dyad membership and the prospect of completing a motor-skills task on alcohol placebo consumption and task confidence. Participants (n 5 115) completed a taste preference task while alone or in dyads. Half the individuals and half the dyads expected to subsequently complete a motor-skills task and rated task confidence pre and post-consumption. Individuals expecting the task consumed less than those in the non-task condition and felt less confident in their abilities post-consumption. Among those expecting the task, dyad members' consumption did not reduce and their post-consumption confidence was higher than individuals' . Findings suggest dyad membership can lead to overconfidence. Attempts to reduce alcohol related harms must balance the protective properties of dyads with risks of overconfidence.

The influence of groups and alcohol consumption on individual risk-taking

“…A further measure of motor coordination to compare with shuffleboard findings, may aid in understanding the full extent of behaviours in which the shuffleboard may, or may not measure. Moreover, the impact of social contexts on self-reported confidence on motor-skilled tasks (Frings et al, 2017), may influence shuffleboard game risk-taking. Therefore, consideration of task confidence may prove fruitful in unpicking further influencers on the shuffleboard game, and possible mediating effects on the relationship between social drinking and risk-taking.…”