An experimental investigation of drunk personality using self and observer reports

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Research has shown that drinkers' “typical drunk personalities” are different from their “typical sober personalities” on each factor of the Five-Factor Model (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness). The aim of the current study was to test if these changes can reliably be observed by trained raters during a drinking episode. Participants (N = 156) attended laboratory sessions in same-sex friend groups of 3 to 4 people (43 groups). Half of the groups were administered alcohol (target BAC = .09). Participants engaged in activities designed to elicit a range of personality expression. All sessions were recorded and multiple trained raters (M = 6.96) completed three personality measures based on the footage. Additionally, participants completed selfreports of their “typical” sober and drunk personalities two weeks prior to their sessions, as well as two short personality measures during the session. Results indicate consistent differences in personality among sober and drunk participants across measures, but the nature of the differences varied by reporter (self vs. observer). Specifically, across three scales, observers rated participants in the Alcohol condition higher in Extraversion, but similarly in most other factors (on one measure, Neuroticism was lower in the Alcohol condition). Among the two self-report measures, four and five of the factors demonstrated reliable differences, with Conscientiousness, Intellect, Neuroticism, and Agreeableness (on the pre-session retrospective measure only) reportedly decreasing with intoxication, and Extraversion increasing. These findings demonstrate that self-perceptions of sober-to drunk personality differences are more pervasive than observer-perceptions, but that alcohol-induced changes in Extraversion are robust enough to be detected across measures and reporters.