Alcohol and disinhibition

This review investigates research evaluating the disinhibition hypothesis. This hypothesis postulates that in a sober state behavior is inhibited. Whe n people are influenced by alcohol the inhibitions are supposed to be weake ned and the motivating drives are postulated to become disinhibited and pot ent to influence behavior. This report reviews the effect of alcohol on ner ve functions, on human sexuality, aggression, eating behavior, psychologica l conflicts, fluency in talk, social anxiety, violent crimes and the intera ction of alcohol and social norms. It has been shown that individual subjec tive experiences sometimes indicate disinhibition (reduction of the forces holding back impulses) and objective behavior in some respects was differen t when the subject was intoxicated, but the mechanism that mediates behavio r is not clear. It seems to be difficult to measure independently the force s restraining (inhibiting) the driving forces (uncontrolled impulses) at th e same time as measuring these driving forces. The review concludes that th ere is no unambiguous support of the disinhibition hypothesis. An alternati ve hypothesis that seems to explain many behaviors in an inebriated individ ual is the 'time out' hypothesis which states that drunken behavior is infl uenced more by norms about what it should be than by the pharmacological ef fect of alcohol.