A new review by researchers reveals that social drinking is a significant pathway to alcohol use disorder, emphasizing the importance of re-evaluating perceptions and prevention strategies.
Many people picture a “typical” alcoholic as someone who drinks at home alone. But that stereotype overlooks a critical and prevalent pathway to serious alcohol problems — social drinking.
A new review paper, authored by Catharine Fairbairn, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Dahyeon Kang, an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, underscores how social drinking plays a significant role in the development of alcohol use disorder (AUD).
The paper, published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, challenges the common perception of alcoholism and calls for a broader understanding of its social roots.
“Evidence for the centrality of social motives in problem drinking surrounds us,” Fairbairn and Kang write.
They highlight that while solitary drinking can signal early risk for alcohol use disorder, research shows that people consistently consume more alcohol in social contexts compared to when they are alone.
Despite this, scientific studies and popular culture tend to focus more on solitary drinkers.
“Within the realm of alcohol use disorder research, basic scientific studies of the solitary drinker outnumber studies of the social drinker by a factor of nearly ten-fold,” the authors write.
This imbalance, they argue, ignores the complex social factors that drive many individuals to drink excessively.
One common misconception is that the presence of others might temper the urge to overindulge. However, Fairbairn notes, this belief can lead to a lack of accountability.
“[F]ocusing exclusively on solitary drinking ignores behaviors responsible for the majority of alcohol-related societal harms,” she said in a news release.
Young people, in particular, often start drinking due to peer influence, with heavy drinkers seeking out other heavy drinkers to indulge in the habit together. Social settings tend to encourage higher alcohol consumption, leading to serious negative consequences, such as alcohol-related violence, risky sexual behavior and traffic fatalities.
Alcohol can reduce anxiety and inhibit social barriers, which might enhance social experiences but also promotes problematic drinking patterns. Those who enjoy drinking in social situations at high levels are more likely to develop alcohol-related issues. Fairbairn and Kang also note that people may use alcohol to cope with troubled relationships.
The study not only sheds light on the social dynamics of alcohol consumption but also warns of potential parallels with other substances such as cannabis, which is becoming more socially accepted.
“As an addictive drug that enjoys an extraordinary level of integration into human social life, alcohol foreshadows legal and medical dilemmas ahead,” the authors write.