title: The effect of self-discrepancy and discrepancy salience on alcohol consumption.
abstract: The effect of self-discrepancy magnitude and salience on alcohol consumption was examined in an ad lib drinking study in order to evaluate the utility of the self-inflation component of the myopia model for better understanding drinking practices. Participants were 33 males and 27 females recruited on a university campus. It was predicted that participants with relatively large real self/ideal self discrepancies on dimensions important to their self-concept would consume the greatest amount of alcohol in a wine tasting test. Moreover, this effect was expected to be enhanced when self-discrepancies were made salient. The results of hierarchical regression analyses showed a main effect of gender and a significant interaction between self-discrepancy magnitude and salience condition. However, the interaction was such that wine consumption tended to decrease as discrepancy magnitude increased in the condition in which self-discrepancies were made salient, with the opposite relationship in the control condition. Three possible reasons for the unexpected findings are discussed: (a) The salience manipulation did not perform as expected: (b) the sample had little to gain from self-inflation: and (c) typically, self-inflation does not significantly motivate alcohol consumption.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, NY 13224-2340, USA. wlwolfe@mailbox.syr.edu
authors.forename: W L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Wolfe
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Maisto
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D003073:Cognitive Dissonance; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012649:Self Concept; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology