Alcohol myopia and condom use: Can alcohol intoxication be associated with more prudent behavior?

MacDonald, Tara K., Fong, Geoffrey T., Zanna, Mark P., Martineau, Alanna M.·2000·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
DOI 10.1037//0022-3514.78.4.605

Abstract

We tested 2 competing theories about the effects of alcohol on intentions to engage in risky behavior. Disinhibition predicts that intoxicated people will exhibit risky behavior regardless of environmental cues, whereas alcohol myopia (C. M. Steele & R. A. Josephs, 1990) predicts that intoxicated people will be more or less likely to exhibit risky behavior, depending on the cues provided. In 4 studies, we found an interaction between intoxication and cue type. When impelling cues were present, intoxicated people reported greater intentions to have unprotected sex than did sober people. When subtle inhibiting cues were present, intoxicated and sober people reported equally cautious intentions (Studies 1-3). When strong inhibiting cues were present, intoxicated people reported more prudent intentions than did sober people (Study 4). We suggest that alcohol myopia provides a more comprehensive account of the effects of alcohol than does disinhibition.

Cites (1)

  1. Alcohol myopia: Its prized and dangerous effects.
    Steele, Claude M., Josephs, Robert A. · 1990 · American Psychologist

Show all 1 references

Cited by (5)

  1. On Integrating the Components of Self-Control
    Kotabe, Hiroki P., Hofmann, Wilhelm · 2015 · Perspectives on Psychological Science
  2. Alcohol Myopia Revisited: Clarifying Aggression and Other Acts of Disinhibition Through a Distorted Lens
    Giancola, Peter R., Josephs, Robert A., Parrott, Dominic J., Duke, Aaron A. · 2010 · Perspectives on Psychological Science
  3. Alcohol Use Predicts Sexual Decision-Making: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Literature
    The MASH Research Team, Scott-Sheldon, Lori A. J., Carey, Kate B., Cunningham, Karlene, Johnson, Blair T., Carey, Michael P. · 2016 · AIDS and Behavior
  4. Alcohol and Aggression: A Test of the Attention-Allocation Model
    Giancola, Peter R., Corman, Michelle D. · 2007 · Psychological Science
  5. Alcohol, violence, and the alcohol myopia model: Preliminary findings and implications for prevention
    Giancola, Peter R., Duke, Aaron A., Ritz, Katalin Z. · 2011 · Addictive Behaviors

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Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Alcohol myopia and condom use: Can alcohol intoxication be associated with more prudent behavior? https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037//0022-3514.78.4.605
The paper
MacDonald, T. K., Fong, G. T., Zanna, M. P., & Martineau, A. M. (2000). Alcohol myopia and condom use: Can alcohol intoxication be associated with more prudent behavior? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.78.4.605

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.