The anticipation of drinking increases self-esteem
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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To liberate and feel self-confidence, it is enough to drink a glass of tea. If, of course, I assure myself that the glass is not tea, but whiskey.
Alcohol, they say, helps to feel self-confidence. Someone drinks "for courage" in front of a risky business, in the outcome of which he is not sure. For example, before a public speaking. Or before you come to get acquainted with the person you liked. Someone drinks just to feel more relaxed in the company. Alcohol gives self-confidence, unleashes language and increases self-esteem: we stop being afraid of condemnation from others. But, as French psychologists from the University of Pierre Mendes-France found out, the actual alcohol is not necessary here: it's enough just to assume that you're drinking something alcoholic.
To begin with, researchers made sure that alcohol really works to increase self-esteem. Psychologists went to the bar, where they asked 19 drinkers (two-thirds of whom were men) to assess their own attractiveness on a seven-point scale. At the same time, scientists checked the alcohol level in the blood with an alcohol-respiratory tube. The answers were predictable: the more a person drank, the more irresistible he considered himself.
At the next stage, the researchers invited about a hundred volunteers to take part in an advertising company for a new fruit cocktail. No advertising campaign, of course, was not, just such a legend created the appearance of the naturalness of what is happening. Then followed a psychological trick: one came, they said that they would drink an alcoholic cocktail, others said it was nonalcoholic. But the drink itself was prepared in such a way that the participants in the experiment did not guess the actual alcohol content in it. That is, they relied only on the information they were told. Accordingly, the researchers prepared "alcoholic" and "non-alcoholic" cocktails as they saw fit.
Volunteers had to make a video in which they advertised a new brand, after which it was suggested to review the recorded and evaluate themselves for attractiveness, originality and sense of humor. All this, of course, was accompanied by measurements of the level of alcohol in the blood. And then it turned out that for self-esteem does not necessarily drink alcohol: it is enough to think that you drink it. Considering that they drink an alcoholic beverage, they considered themselves to be the most charming and attractive, although researchers poured non-alcoholic drinks on them. On the contrary, those who were convinced of the softness of their cocktail were not too enthusiastic about themselves, although scientists mixed in their drinks a fair amount of alcohol.
Roughly speaking, to increase self-esteem, a glass in hand is enough. And what is in it is poured - it's the second thing, if only it seemed that this is alcohol. This kind of placebo effect is reminiscent of the story of how alcohol advertising exacerbates domestic racism. Psychologists believe that there is a similar mechanism here: alcohol really helps to liberate; this is known to everyone, and our minds are simply preparing for this effect by removing psychological clamps.
But there is an unpleasant "but": a person becomes charming and attractive only in his own eyes. The researchers asked to see the "promotional" videos of strangers, and their attitude was usually at odds with the participants' self-assessment. After a helping of booze, even imaginary, even real, a person likes only himself, but not others.