There are other potential explanations aside from the power of suggestion.
For example: Perhaps they wanted to act in a certain way, and the drinks provided the validation that allowed them to do so un-self-consciously?
It's hard to separate out the environmental effects ("I'm in this environment, so I'd like to act a certain way") from the psychosomatic effects ("Alcohol is making me act a certain way"). Not sure that surveying the participants would help, since so much of this is unconscious and people don't always have a good sense of their own motives.
The New York Times' Health page has an interesting article up that discusses different studies done on binge drinking. Before heading out to a tropical destination for spring break, check it out.
In a series of studies in the 1970s and ’80s, psychologists at the University of Washington put more than 300 students into a study room outfitted like a bar with mirrors, music and a stretch of polished pine. The researchers served alcoholic drinks, most often icy vodka tonics, to some of the students and nonalcoholic ones, usually icy tonic water, to others. The drinks looked and tasted the same, and the students typically drank five in an hour or two.
The studies found that people who thought they were drinking alcohol behaved exactly as aggressively, or as affectionately, or as merrily as they expected to when drunk. “No significant difference between those who got alcohol and those who didn’t,” Alan Marlatt, the senior author, said. “Their behavior was totally determined by their expectations of how they would behave.”
A great example of the power of suggestion.
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For example: Perhaps they wanted to act in a certain way, and the drinks provided the validation that allowed them to do so un-self-consciously?
It's hard to separate out the environmental effects ("I'm in this environment, so I'd like to act a certain way") from the psychosomatic effects ("Alcohol is making me act a certain way"). Not sure that surveying the participants would help, since so much of this is unconscious and people don't always have a good sense of their own motives.