Does alcohol really affect our behaviour?

By Nicole Muller


Promiscuity, aggression and violence…these are just some of the undesirable traits that many describe as the effects of heavy drinking. But is alcohol really to blame?

Anthropologist Kate Fox, director of the Social Issues Research Centre, has criticized Britain’s attitudes towards drinking, claiming we believe ‘alcohol has magical powers.’ In her opinion, alcohol has little effect on an individual’s behaviour, but is in fact determined by the cultural norms and rules of the society that surrounds them.

Of course, alcohol has been proven to impair our reaction times, muscle control, coordination and short-term memory but there is no scientific evidence that it has the ability to make us behave in ways we would not when sober.

Fox states that in some societies, such as the UK and the US, the drinking habits are described as ‘ambivalent’, meaning it is often linked to disorderly behaviour. However, in many other locations across the globe in which drinking is a part of everyday life, much like perhaps tea or coffee in the UK, there is very little focus upon the unwelcome effects of drinking.

According to Fox, this variation has little to do with the levels of consumption, but more on the individual themselves and the society in which they live. And unfortunately for us, Britain is not exactly renowned for having a particularly positive drinking culture.

Niko Pike, manager of The Seven Stars pub in Canterbury, has his say on Fox’s findings.