This New Study Found That Alcohol Increases Our Physiological Response To Unpredictable Stressors

After going out for a night on the town and indulging in some alcohol, have you ever felt prohibited from logically responding to unexpected circumstances?
This is because alcohol can cause increased anxiety about unknown stressors and lead people to make dangerous decisions.
Oregon State’s newly-established Bradford psychology lab has published a new study about this all-too-common phenomenon.
The study aims to understand humans’ response to stressors and how drug or alcohol consumption can affect these reactions.
Daniel Bradford, the study’s co-author, discussed why he was particularly interested in researching this topic.
“Drinking alcohol may make people care less about unpredictable things, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. When you’re drinking, you may make risky decisions because you do not worry about what you can’t predict while drunk,” Bradford said.
The study was conducted at the University of Miami and included one hundred and twenty-eight participants.
The participants ranged from twenty-one to thirty-five years of age and had no prior history of alcohol-related problems.
The researchers gave the experimental group cocktails containing alcohol while they gave a placebo group virgin cocktails. Then, the participants were tested on their responses to various kinds of stressors.

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The participants had electrodes attached to their fingers to deliver minor shock waves. While the shocks were not nearly strong enough to cause pain, only some participants received a warning before the stressor was sent.
The warned participants received a visual cue from a screen that either detailed the upcoming shock level or was ambiguous.
Then, the shock was delivered by researchers precisely six seconds after the warning message aired.
The study found that uncertainty played the most significant role.
“If you tell someone they are going to get a low shock or a high shock, or you say that it can’t be larger than ‘X,’ people still have a stronger physiological response when they do not know how bit it’s going to be– even when they know that it cannot be any larger than the largest number you told them,” Bradford explained.
The experiment then gave participants the ability to control the shock. This time, before a shock was delivered, they were allowed to reduce its level by a few degrees.
Still, the study found that this sense of control still had a very minimal effect on their stress responses.
So, the next time you are in an unpredictable environment, maybe opt for an alcohol-free beverage. Your lowered anxiety level will thank you.
To read the complete scientific study, visit the link here.
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