Energy drinks mixed with alcohol: the interactive effects on risk-taking behavior, alcohol priming and related negative consequences
School of Social Science SLSY100: Psychology 100
Energy drinks mixed with alcohol: the interactive effects on risk-taking behavior, alcohol consumption and related negative consequences Abstract The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between risk-taking propensity; AmED use and the effects these variables had overall alcohol consumption and the experience of related negative consequences. Participants were 172 university students from the psychology faculty of an Australian university. Data was collected using a self-report on line survey. The survey used a…show more content… Citing a study by Marczinkski et al (2012), results of a double blind, placebo controlled, between groups study assessing initial AmED dose primes the subject for an increased desire to drink alcohol, relative to alcohol alone (Peacock & Bruno et al, 2013), found that the subjective rating for “desire more alcohol” were higher in AmED conditions than alcohol alone (Peacock & Bruno, 2013). However, Peacock and Bruno (2013) did conclude that to validate a causal relationship between AmED use and alcohol priming and increased consumption, further studies using within subject designs are needed to discount the confounding effects of personality traits such as risk taking propensity. Verster et al (2012) has also suggested that flaws in survey design in many of the existing research has meant that a causal relationship between AmED use, increased alcohol consumption and alcohol related consequences could not be established. The main concern about the design of these studies is that the comparisons have been made using between group analyses. Authors of these studies have investigated the relationship between AmED use and its effects by comparing variables such as mean consumption, risk-taking behaviour indicators and experience of negative consequences between AmEd users and alcohol alone users. The limitations of between group designs are that they may introduce confounding factors such as personality type that make it
