Youngsters' drinking behavior can be used as a signal, as both behaviors clearly function as an attention-attracting cue

Does Alcohol Catch the Eye? Investigating Young Adults’ Attention to Alcohol Consumption. Eveline Vincke, and Patrick Vyncke. Evolutionary Psychology, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474704917730207

Abstract: Many studies on young adults’ motivations for drinking overlook the symbolic aspects of alcohol use. However, research indicates that young adults’ alcohol consumption is also driven by signaling motivations. Although the interest of a receiver is a necessary prerequisite of a signal, no previous studies have verified whether drinking behavior indeed attracts young adults’ attention. Therefore, we conducted two studies. A two-part eye-tracking study (N1 = 135, N2 = 140) showed that both young men and young women pay special visual attention to male and female drinking behavior. Additionally, a recall experiment (N = 321) confirmed that observed male and female drinking is better remembered than observed nonsignaling, functional behavior. Moreover, alcoholic beverages also receive special attention, as they were recalled better than other functional products, and also nonalcoholic drinks similar in color and shape. In summary, the experiments clearly showed that male and female drinking behavior can be used as a signal, as both behaviors clearly function as an attention-attracting cue. Additionally, as alcoholic beverages draw more attention than nonalcoholic drinks, this attention is clearly linked to the alcohol element of the drinking behavior.

Keywords: young adults, attention, alcohol consumption, eye tracking, recall, signaling

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Both of the present studies show that young adults. drinking behavior is easily perceivable and certainly not ignored by other young adults, seemingly corresponding to the theory of costly signaling ... and its handicap principle (Zahavi & Zahavi, 1997). However, although consuming alcohol can be physically harmful, more research is necessary to confirm whether drinking alcohol is indeed a reliable indicator of specific physical qualities. For smoking .also a known harmful and risky  activity.partial confirmation for this assumption was found, as people with low dispositional health suffered more from the harmful effects of smoking compared to persons with high dispositional health (Dewitte,  2011). For alcohol, only one previous study has attempted to verify whether drinking behavior reflects certain physical qualities, by linking this behavior to fluctuating asymmetry as an indicator of overall genetic quality. However, the study did not find confirmation that the use of alcohol functions as an indicator of those specific biological qualities. Nevertheless, the authors indicated that, given the influence of prenatal and other environmental stressors on fluctuating asymmetry, its use as a measure of overall genetic quality is questionable (Borkowska & Pawlowski, 2014). Equally, drinking behavior could also indicate certain mental qualities, such as the propensity to take physical and/or social risks. As drinking behavior also has financial aspects due to the price of alcoholic beverages, drinking behavior could potentially even be used as a costly signal to indicate the drinker.s financial resources to others. However, to date, it remains unclear whether alcohol consumption is used for these signaling purposes.  Future research could also focus on identifying how alcohol is used in different contexts. On the one hand, male alcohol consumption could function as an intersexual courtship signal, as women displayed interest in men.s drinking behavior. However, as men also paid attention to same-sex drinking behavior, alcohol use might also functi on as a signal for other males, either in intrasexual competitive contexts or in more reciprocal social contexts. As people search for different qualities in romantic partners, sexual partners, coalitional partners, and friends, it would be interesting to know which characteristics and qualities young men attempt to signal in different social situations, through different forms of alcohol consumption.

Similarly, as men also took an interest in women.s drinking behavior, alcohol might also be used by young women as a signal in mating situations. However, the lower attention given by women to other women.s drink ing behavior might indicate that consuming alcohol is a less relevant behavior in female intrasexual signaling. Indeed, whereas men engage in risky intrasexual competitive behavior ..., women prefer engaging in self-promotion in which they attempt to improve their appearance and physical attractiveness (Fisher & Cox, 2011; Fisher, Cox, & Gordon, 2009). This has been attributed to women.s predominant role as the primary caregivers for children, making risky behaviors less appropriate competitive behaviors due to their higher reproductive costs (Campbell, 2004). As drinking behavior, especially in an excessive manner, can also be considered risky and harmful behavior, this could explain why women pay less attention to female peers. drinking behavior. Non etheless, as young women mention using alcohol for social bonding and maintaining friendships (de Visser et al., 2013), female peers. alcohol consumption remains important information.

Together, these results suggest that alcohol consumption might operate as a signaling system in different domains, including intersexual courtship, intrasexual competition, group bonding, and strengthening friend ships. However, further research is necessary to unravel the functioning of alcohol as a signal in these different contexts, and to increase the understanding of the meaning of alcohol. Moreover, as sociocultural norms affect young adults. drinking behavior, future research should take into account both the national and local drinking cultures when studying the meaning of alcohol as a signal. On the one hand, national cultural norms affect both the acceptance and expectation to drink alcohol on specific social occasions as well as the general attitudes toward binge drinking and intoxication (Fjær, Pedersen, von Soest, & Gray, 2016; Grønkjær, Curtis, De Crespigny, & Delmar, 2011; Ma¨kela¨ & Maunu, 2016). Accordingly, alcohol will be perceived very differently in abstinent societies or countries with constrained ritual drinking practices,  compared to the more liberal European drinking cultures in which nondrinkers are often perceived as unusual ...

Additionally, the symbolic meaning of alcohol consumption and excessive drinking also depends on the local  community or peer group of which one is a member ... Furthermore, local alcohol  regulations and policies also affect the meaning of alcohol. For example, an 18-year-old drinking alcohol  would be perceived differently in Belgium than in the United States, where the legal drinking age is 21.

Finally, there are also some limitations to our studies.  Firstly, neither study took into account the act
ual drinking behavior of the participants. Nonetheless, it is possible that drinking behavior and alcoholic beverages receive more attention from drinkers, compared to nondrinkers. However, as the proportion of a lcohol consumers is very high among young adult students in Belgium (Rosiers et al., 2014), we believe that there would have been very few nondrinkers in this study group. Additionally, attention to alcoholic beverages was only measured by means of recall. Future eye-tracking studies should also study the visual attention to alcoholic products.