A Test of the Attention-Allocation Model

This article presents the first systematic test of the attention-allocation model for alcohol-related aggression. According to this model, alcohol has a ‘‘myopic’’ effect on attentional capacity that presumably facilitates aggression by focusing attention on more salient provocative, rather than less salient inhibitory, cues in hostile situations. Aggression was assessed using a laboratory task in which mild electric shocks were received from, and administered to, a fictitious opponent. Study 1 demonstrated that a moderate-load cognitive distractor suppressed aggression in intoxicated subjects (to levels even lower than those exhibited by a placebo control group). Study 2 assessed how varying the magnitude of a distracting cognitive load affected aggression in the alcohol and placebo conditions. Results indicated that the moderate-load distraction used in Study 1 (i.e., holding four elements in sequential order in working memory) suppressed aggression best. Cognitive loads of larger and smaller magnitudes were not successful in attenuating aggression. Acute alcohol consumption is related to aggressive behavior, as evidenced by both correlational and experimental studies (reviewed in Bushman & Cooper, 1990, and Chermack & Giancola, 1997). Research has shown that alcohol is involved in about 50% of violent crimes (reviewed in Murdoch, Pihl, & Ross, 1990; Pernanen, 1991). It has also been noted that it is the acute effects of alcohol, rather than its chronic effects, that have the largest impact on aggressive behavior (Chermack & Blow, 2002; Fals-Stewart, 2003). One of the most well-accepted models of alcohol-related aggression was put forth first by Taylor and Leonard (1983). The model was then further elaborated on by Steele and Josephs (1990), as a more general theory of alcohol’s effect on behavior; they termed it the attention-allocation model. According to this model, acute alcohol intoxication disrupts cognitive functioning, thus creating a ‘‘myopic,’’ or narrowing, effect on attentional capacity. Consequently, alcohol presumably facilitates aggression by focusing attention on more salient provocative, rather than less salient inhibitory, cues in a hostile situation. Other researchers, such as Pernanen (1976), have alluded to similar processes as accounting for alcohol-related aggression. The attention-allocation model is general in scope and has been utilized to explain a number of alcohol-related behaviors. Specifically, studies testing the model found that following an anxiety-induction manipulation, alcohol significantly decreased subjective anxiety for persons whose attention was distracted away from stressful thoughts by performing a cognitive task. However, for subjects assigned to a no-distraction condition, alcohol actually increased anxiety (Josephs & Steele, 1990; Steele & Josephs, 1988). Other studies have shown that alcohol reduces intentions to engage in risky sexual behavior in the presence of inhibitory or low-sexual-arousal cues, but increases such intentions in the presence of permissive or highly sexually arousing cues (MacDonald, Fong, Zanna, & Martineau, 2000; MacDonald, MacDonald, Zanna, & Fong, 2000). Intentions to engage in risky sexual behavior were at an intermediate level in persons given a placebo beverage instead of alcohol. Furthermore, the attention-allocation model has also been used to help explain behaviors such as disinhibited eating (Mann & Ward, 2004; Ward & Mann, 2000) and drinking and driving (MacDonald, Zanna, & Fong, 1995). A number of established alcohol researchers have invoked the attention-allocation model, in one form or another, to explain alcohol-related aggression (Abbey, 2002; Aviles, Earleywine, Pollock, Stratton, & Miller, 2005; Chermack & Taylor, 1995; George & Norris, 1991; Giancola, 2000; Leonard, 2002; Murphy, Winters, O’Farrell, Fals-Stewart, & Murphy, 2005; Pernanen, 1976; Pihl & Peterson, 1995; Sayette, 1999; Taylor & Leonard, 1983; Testa, Livingston, & Collins, 2000). Thus, it is surprising that in the approximately 25 years since its genesis, the model has never been tested with respect to this particular behavior. However, it is noteworthy that one study did assess the Address correspondence to Peter R. Giancola, Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, 115 Kastle Hall, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, e-mail: [email protected]. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Volume 18—Number 7 649 Copyright r 2007 Association for Psychological Science impact of attentional processes on aggression in intoxicated individuals (Zeichner, Pihl, Niaura, & Zacchia, 1982). Results indicated that forced attention on a laboratory aggression task increased aggression in subjects who consumed alcohol, whereas distraction from the task had the opposite effect. These findings are consistent with the hypotheses put forth in the present article. The purpose of this article is to present the first test of the attention-allocation model for alcohol-related aggression. In Study 1, we tested the hypothesis that compared with a placebo beverage, alcohol will increase aggression in persons who are not distracted from a provocative stimulus and will suppress aggression in those whose attention is distracted away from this stimulus. We reasoned that inasmuch as a placebo beverage should not impair attentional capacity, people who consume a placebo will have sufficient cognitive resources to attend to both distracting and provocative stimuli, and the latter will incite some aggression. Thus, we expected subjects in the no-distraction placebo group to exhibit some aggression, but not as much as subjects in the no-distraction alcohol group, whose attention would be focused on the provocative cues. We expected distraction combined with alcohol consumption to reduce aggression because distraction should avert individuals’ attention away from provocative cues. Study 2 was designed to assess the effect of the magnitude of a distracting cognitive load on aggression after consumption of alcohol. In accordance with Josephs and Steele’s (1990) theorizing, we hypothesized that the greatest suppressive effect on aggression will be observed when the cognitive load is moderate. Whereas a mild distractor might not reallocate sufficient attentional resources away from provocative cues, distractors that are too strong might engender more aggression due to frustration or other effects caused by the task’s excessive difficulty.