Effects of acute alcohol consumption on emotion recognition in social alcohol drinkers

Background: Research suggests that acute alcohol consumption alters recognition of emotional expressions. Extending this work, we investigated the effects of alcohol on recognition of six primary expressions of emotion. 

Methods: We conducted two studies using a 2 × 6 experimental design with a between-subjects factor of drink (alcohol, placebo) and a within-subjects factor of emotion (anger, disgust, sadness, surprise, happiness, fear). Study one (n = 110) was followed by a direct replication study (n = 192). Participants completed a six alternative forced choice emotion recognition task following consumption of 0.4 g/kg alcohol or placebo. Dependent variables were recognition accuracy (i.e. hits) and false alarms. 

Results: There was no clear evidence of differences in recognition accuracy between groups (ps >.58). In study one, there were more false alarms for anger in the alcohol compared to placebo group (n = 52 and 56, respectively; t(94.6) = 2.26, p =.024, d =.44) and fewer false alarms for happiness (t(106) = –2.42, p =.017, d = –.47). However, no clear evidence for these effects was found in study two (alcohol group n = 96, placebo group n = 93, ps >.22). When the data were combined we observed weak evidence of an effect of alcohol on false alarms of anger (t(295) = 2.25, p =.025, d =.26). 

Conclusions: These studies find weak support for biased anger perception following acute alcohol consumption in social consumers, which could have implications for alcohol-related aggression. Future research should investigate the robustness of this effect, particularly in individuals high in trait aggression.