Drinking culture

Drinking culture includes the activities, terminology and truisms shared by those who drink alcohol.

Although the type of alcohol, social attitude toward (and acceptance of) drinking varies around the world, nearly every civilization has independently discovered the process of brewing beer, fermenting wine or distilling liquor.

Alcohol and its effects have been present wherever people have lived throughout history. Drinking is documented in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, Greek literature as old as Homer, and Confucius' Analects. Given its continuing popularity and the failure of alcohol Prohibitions, drinking may remain a part of human life interminably.

Purpose of drinking

Generally, people drink for one of five reasons; to quench thirst, to get drunk (binge drinking), to enjoy a social setting (social drinking), to feed an addiction (alcoholism), or as part of a religious or traditional ceremony or custom.

Binge drinking

Binge drinking is sometimes defined as drinking alcohol solely for the purpose of intoxication, although it is quite common for binge drinking to apply to a social situation, creating some overlap in social and binge drinking. Some researchers use a low threshold definition in which binge drinking refers to a woman consuming four drinks and a man consuming five drinks on an occasion. Because drinking occasions typically last five to seven hours, many such bingers never become thoroughly intoxicated. Clinically and traditionally, however, binge drinking is defined as a period of continuing intoxication lasting at least two days during which time the binger neglects usual life activities (work, family, etc.). The concept of a "binge" has been somewhat elastic over the years, implying consumption of alcohol far beyond what is socially acceptible. The word is known to have entered the English language as early as 1854; it derives, from a dialectical word meaning "soak". (American Heritage Dictionary)

College students have a reputation for engaging in binge drinking, especially in the USA and generally throughout northern Europe; participants include college athletes, fraternities, and sororities, particularly after final examinations, varsity wins and during spring break. Some common reasons for this propensity for binge drinking is that many college students are living on their own for the first time, free of parental supervision, and among peers -- especially those of the opposite sex.

In much of Europe where children and adolescents routinely experience alcohol early and with parental approval, such as watered-down wine with a meal, binge drinking tends to be less of a problem. The longstanding exception is the UK and Ireland: as early as the eighth century, Saint Boniface was writing to Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, to report how "in your diocese, the vice of drunkenness is too frequent. This is an evil peculiar to pagans and to our race. Neither the Franks nor the Gauls nor the Lombards nor the Romans nor the Greeks commit it".[1]

Binge drinking is also very common in Scandinavian countries, with their long tradition of high alcohol prices and restricted access. For younger people, from about 15 years and until leaving adolesence, binge drinking may be the main form of drinking. Reasons cited are Viking heritage or the fact that one tends to buy alcohol in bulk, and thus consume in bulk. Yet similar consumption is observed in The Netherlands, Germany, the Balkan states, Russia, and Eastern Europe. Some studies have noted traditional, cultural differences between Northern and Southern Europe. There is also a physical aspect to national differences worldwide, which has not yet been thoroughly studied, whereby some ethnic groups have a greater capacity for alcohol metabolization through the liver enzymes alcohol dehydrogenase and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase.

These varying capacities do not, however, avoid all health risks inherent in alcohol consumption; moreover, one inebriated person is just as much a danger on the road as another inebriated person. Significantly, Northern European countries are among the most stringent in their punishment of offenders driving under the influence of alcohol.

Social drinking

Social drinking refers to casual collateral drinking, usually without the intent to get drunk.

Social drinking plays an important (but not traditional) role in such social functions as dating, and marriage. For example, a person buying another a drink at a singles bar is a gesture that the one is interested in the other and often initiates conversation, or at least flirtation.

Bad news is often delivered over a drink, good news is often celebrated by having a few drinks - we drink to "wet the baby's head" to celebrate a birth. Buying someone a drink is a gesture of goodwill, and can be used as an expression of gratitude or mark the resolution of a dispute--to bury the hatchet, so to say. The physical act of going to a comfortable setting with friends is a large part of sharing a drink in the above situations, but the fact remains that people have found as many reasons to meet for a drink as they have to meet for tea, coffee, or to eat.

Alcohol expectancies

Alcohol expectancies are beliefs that individuals hold about the effects they experience from drinking. They are largely beliefs about how the consumption of alcohol will effect a person’s emotions, abilities and behaviors. To the extent that alcohol expectancies can be changed, it may be possible to reduce a major social and health problem, that of alcohol abuse.

If people in a society generally believe that intoxication leads to aggression, sexual behavior, or rowdy behavior, they tend to act that way when intoxicated. If the society teaches that intoxication leads to relaxation and tranquil behavior, it virtually always leads to those outcomes. Alcohol expectancies vary within a population so outcomes are not uniform.

People tend to conform to social expectations and a common belief in most societies is that alcohol causes disinhibition. However, in those societies in which people don’t believe that alcohol disinhibits, intoxication virtually never leads to unacceptable behaviors because of “disinhibition.”

Alcohol expectancies can operate in the absence of actual consumption of alcohol. Research in the U.S. over a period of decades has shown that men tend to become physically more sexually aroused when they think they have been drinking alcohol, even when they haven't. Women report feeling more sexually aroused when they falsely believe the beverages they have been consuming contain alcohol, although a measure of their physiological arousal shows that they are physically becoming less aroused.

Men tend to become more aggressive in laboratory studies in which they are drinking only tonic water but believe that it contains alcohol. They also become relatively less aggressive when they think they are drinking only tonic water, but are actually drinking tonic containing alcohol.

The phenomenon of alcohol expectancies recognizes that intoxication has real physiological consequences effecting perception of time and space, reducing psychomotor skills, disrupting equilibrium and a number of other behaviors.

The manner and degree to which alcohol expectancies interact with the physiological effects of intoxication to yield the behavior that results is unclear.

Free drinks

Free drinks is a ritual which has existed in various institutions at various times and within various cultures and traditions. The social effects of this ritual, however, have more to do with sociology and psychology than the more temporary physical effects of the event itself.

For example, during a wedding, free drinks are often served to guests during the reception, as a matter of celebration, or at more serious functions, free drinks may be offered in order to entice greater attendance. Interestingly enough, this phenomenon combines the human need and capacity for ritual societal gatherings and basic greed. It is also an anecdotal fact that one can tolerate more alcohol, in a situation when payment isn't necessary, than at any other time. Similarly, free drinks can assume an almost mystical status in the minds of everyday people, who are accustomed to paying for their drinks.

Further examples include the more recent policy of "ladies drink free" at bars; a fairly transparent ploy, aimed somewhat at swingers, to hopefully bring a bar more female visitors, and hopefully, to thereby bring in more male patrons. Many military bases, as well as large corporations, (especially in Japan) have favoured bars, often locations specifically catering to these institutions; private functions arranged here, while providing free drinks, can often be obligatory. Another view of the free drinks phenomenon is far more basic: the simple act of sharing one's beverage with another, be it from the same container, or bringing a cold beer from the refrigerator for a friend.

In the United States, frat houses at college campues often serve "Free Beer" to attract potential rushees and attractive single females (Oleson and Larson 2004).

List of drinking terms

Some terms describing drinks, used when ordering:

Shot - 1 or 1.5 ounces (3 to 5 cl) of liquor in a shot glass, to be drunk in one quick motion; in the mouth and immediately down the throat without tasting (shooting)
Neat - said of liquor taken alone in a short glass, no ice or water
On the Rocks - said of liquor taken in a short glass with ice
Chaser - a drink weaker than liquor intended to be drunk immediately after a shot
Straight-up - served chilled, by shaking with ice, then straining
With a twist - served with a twist of citrus peel, either lemon or lime
Shaken - referring to the method of mixing or chilling of alcohol(s), using a cocktail shaker
Stirred - referring to the method of mixing or chilling of alcohol(s)
In the Face - a term common to Northern England, colloquially meaning "drink up"
"Down-it" - another term used that proposes the drinker to finish his/her drink quickly.

Drinking Terms:

Shot Gun - term used to desribe drinking beer through a hole punched in the bottom of the can, and then opening the top. This method serves to "shoot" the beer out of the can faster thus, in theory allowing the recepient to get drunk faster.

Types of drinking glasses

Highball glass - tall thin glass, used for Bloody Marys and the like
Yard Glass - an even taller vessel, often used for the sculling of beer
Lowball or Rocks Glass - shorter glass, used for sipping liquors, esp. Scotch, whiskey, etc.
Champagne Flute - very slender, tapers at the opening; used for champagne
Wine glass - shallower and rounder than a flute; used for wine
Stein - large mug traditionally with a hinged lid in which beer is served
Pint - either 16 or 20 fl. oz. (473 or 568 mL resp.) glass, generally used for beer or cider
Schooner - 425ml (15 fl. oz.) Australian beer glass
Middy - 285ml (10 fl. oz.) Australian beer glass
Martini glass (more properly a Cocktail glass) - inverted cone with a long stem; used for martinis
Shot glass - 1 or 1.5 ounce, used for shooting straight liquor
Collins glass
Disposable plastic cup - Usually 12 ounce capacity, often colored bright red or blue on the outside and white on the inside. Often called a keg cup, since they are most commonly used at "kegger" parties, where a keg of beer is provided (of the partgoer must pay a small fee for the cup).

Reference

Corbin, W.R., Bernat, J.A., Calhoun, K.S., McNair, L.D., & Seals, K.L. The role of alcohol expectancies and alcohol consumption among sexually victimized and nonvictimized college women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2001, 16(4), 297-311.

Grattan, K. E., and Vogel-Sprott, M. Neurobiological, behavioral, and environmental relations to drinking - maintaining intentional control of behavior under alcohol. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 2001, 25(2), 192-197.

MacAndrew, C., and Edgerton R. Drunken Comportment: A Social Explanation. Chicago, Illinois: Aldine, 1969.

Ortner, C., et al. Alcohol intoxication reduces impulsivity in the delay-discounting paradigm. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 2003, 38, 151-156.