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

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. 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. 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). 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