Alcohol consumption increases bias to shoot at Middle Eastern but not White targets

Timothy P. Schofield*, Christian Unkelbach, Thomas F. Denson

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    11 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Alcohol has been implicated in intergroup aggression and hostility. The effect of consuming alcohol relative to a placebo on hostile cognitive biases toward a social category typically stereotyped as threatening and hostile (i.e., Middle Eastern men) was tested. Undergraduates (N = 81) consumed either an intoxicating dose of alcohol (BrAC =.05% by vol.) or placebo. Then, they played a shooter game in which they were asked to shoot at targets holding guns, but not at targets holding harmless objects. Half of the targets were White and half were Middle Eastern. As predicted, alcohol consumption, relative to a placebo, increased participants’ bias to shoot Middle Eastern targets, but did not affect the shooter bias against White targets. Findings suggest that alcohol may heighten aggressive biases toward outgroups stereotyped as threatening and hostile.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)202-215
    Number of pages14
    JournalGroup Processes and Intergroup Relations
    Volume20
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2017

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