Influence of gender on drinking in a modeling situation.

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Abstract
A total of 64 college students (32 women), classified as moderate or heavy drinkers, participated in a 15 min wine-tasting task in the presence of an experimental accomplice posing as another subject. The men and women subjects were randomly paired with either a man or a woman accomplice. Half of the accomplices performed the wine-tasting task simultaneously with the subject, modeling heavy wine consumption by drinking 700 ml of a nonalcoholic beverage that looked likewine, and the remaining half performed an art-rating task while the subject performed the wine-rating task. Subjects exposed to the heavy-drinking accomplice drank significantly more wine (mean 173 ml) than did control subjects (mean 86 ml). Neither the subject''s nor the accomplice''s sex attained significance, but the interaction between these 2 variables was significant. Tests of simple main effects showed that men drank significantly more when exposed to a man accomplice than when exposed to a women accomplice (188 vs. 112 ml). Subjects exposed to the heavy-drinking accomplice took significantly more sips than did subjects in the control condition (29 vs. 17), but sip magnitude did not differ significantly. Modeling exerts a strong effect on the drinking behavior of normal drinkers and extends them to women subjects and accomplices.

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