This study provided the first direct test of the cognitive underpinnings of the attention-allocation model and attempted to replicate and extend past behavioral findings for this model as an explanation for alcohol-related aggression. Men were randomly assigned to a beverage (Alcohol, No-Alcohol Control) and a distraction (Moderate Distraction, No Distraction) condition. All men were provoked by a male confederate and completed a dot probe task and a laboratory aggression task without distraction or while presented with a moderate distraction task. Results indicated that intoxicated men whose attention was distracted displayed significantly lower levels of aggression bias and enacted significantly less physical aggression than intoxicated men whose attention was not distracted. However, aggression bias did not account for the lower levels of alcohol-related aggression in the distraction, relative to the no-distraction, condition. Discussion focused on how these data inform intervention programming for alcohol-related aggression.

Ongoing investigations of drunken aggression tend to focus on 1) situational cues, and 2) individual variables such as personality traits. This study investigated the hypothesis that an undergraduates attention would be pulled toward a nonconscious presentation of aggression stimuli, especially in the presence of alcohol cues, and especially if he or she was high on trait anger [as measured using the State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI); Spielberger, 1988] and had high expectancies for behaving aggressively while drinking alcohol [as measured using the Expectancy Questionnaire for Alcohol and Aggression Lo Dose (EQAAL); Epps, Hunter, LeVasseur, Steinberg, and Hancock, unpublished manuscript]. Seventy-nine of the participants who completed questionnaires also completed one of the two computer tasks (adapted from John Bargh and associates) weeks later in either the Barroom or the Cleanroom. Attention to HiAggression words (as measured by reaction time or error rate difference scores) was significantly higher than attention to NonAggression words using the parafoveal visual task, with observed power at 1. No significant differences were found using the dichotic listening task. Additionally, there was a significant three-way interaction (Word Type X Setting X Angry Temperament) when participants where blocked according to high vs. low angry temperament scores. Follow-up analyses as well as regression analyses for the specific hypothesis provided mixed results. Individuals lower on angry temperament tended to demonstrate higher levels of attentional interference for aggression words, but only in the presence of alcohol cues. Conversely, individuals higher on angry temperament evidenced higher levels of attentional interference, but only in the absence of alcohol cues. It appears that the relationships among these variables are by no means straightforward. Studies that include an opportunity to aggress behaviorally may shed more light on whether ones level of attentional interference and self-reported personality traits can be combined to predict aggression in the presence of alcohol cues. The parafoveal visual task is recommended as the methodology of choice for these future studies.

This study provided the first direct test of the cognitive underpinnings of the attention-allocation model and attempted to replicate and extend past behavioral findings for this model as an explanation for alcohol-related aggression. Men were randomly assigned to a beverage (Alcohol, No-Alcohol Control) and a distraction (Moderate Distraction, No Distraction) condition. All men were provoked by a male confederate and completed a dot probe task and a laboratory aggression task without distraction or while presented with a moderate distraction task. Results indicated that intoxicated men whose attention was distracted displayed significantly lower levels of aggression bias and enacted significantly less physical aggression than intoxicated men whose attention was not distracted. However, aggression bias did not account for the lower levels of alcohol-related aggression in the distraction, relative to the no-distraction, condition. Discussion focused on how these data inform intervention programming for alcohol-related aggression.

The primary aim of the present investigation was to directly examine a theoretically-based, ecologically-valid intervention and proposed mechanism for reducing at risk men’s alcohol-related aggression toward women for the bar setting. This study was developed in response to a critical need to address barriers to interventions for alcohol-related. This literature called for research to empirically investigate (a) specific intervention techniques that reduce aggression, (b) in whom such interventions will have the greatest impact, and (c) the mechanisms that account for such effects. Results of this study evidenced that the attention-allocation model-inspired intervention, relative to control, was associated with less alcohol-related physical aggression toward a female confederate. This finding held for men who reported lower, but not higher, levels of masculine gender role stress. However, results of the study did not support the hypotheses that intoxicated men who received the intervention, relative to control, would display the lowest levels of negative cognition and that masculine gender role stress would moderate this effect. Thus, the present study successfully addressed two of the three barriers cited. Discussion focused on how these data inform intervention programming for alcohol-related aggression.