'I want to understand whether a +good+ drink can create a bad person', says moral psychologist Mariola Paruzel-Czachura, PhD, a professor at the University of Silesia. In her research, the psychologist tries to understand how alcohol affects moral judgments and why it causes people to do things they would not do while sober. 'How is it possible that good people can do bad things just because they have drank alcohol', the psychologist asks.

Some data show that around 40 percent prisoners convicted of crimes related to violence committed the act under the influence of alcohol, and in the case of sexual violence, this percentage is much higher. It has long been known that free alcohol 'makes it easier' for gamblers to bet larger amounts, and as a result - increases casino profits. It has also been known for a long time that drunk people are more prone to recklessness and risky sexual behaviour. So we can guess that alcohol somehow affects morality. It would seem that this topic has already been thoroughly studied by psychologists. And yet it turns out that there is a large gap in our knowledge. A team from the University of Silesia has addressed this issue.

So far, according to Silesian research (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-023-06438-z), the view on what is ethical - and what is not - does not change at all under the influence of alcohol. There are also no differences in the assessment of how ethical, aggressive or intelligent we consider ourselves to be.

However, the perception of some values does change. The approach to loyalty, justice and authority remains unwavering. However, the 'moral brakes' related to care (not doing harm) and purity (disgust related to tarnishing the sanctity and cleanliness of the body) are becoming looser.

The study was conducted in the laboratory of the Institute of Psychology in Katowice. The participants - about 300 healthy, non-alcoholics - were randomly assigned to different groups. For example, people from the control group received juice, and people from the group drinking the highest dose of alcohol - juice with vodka (they did not know the proportions).

The alcoholic drinks were prepared based on the weight of the subject: a maximum of 1.6 g of vodka was given per each kilogram of body weight. A person weighing 60 kg was given a drink with about 100 g of vodka, and a person weighing 78 kg was given about 125 g of vodka. At the time of the study - 50 minutes after consumption - the subjects had over 0.5 per mille of alcohol in their blood, so formally they were drunk.

The participants were presented with various moral issues, e.g. the train car dilemma - the participant had to decide whether to push one person off the viaduct in order to stop the train and save the lives of several other people trapped on the tracks. 'With the dose of alcohol that we studied, the decisions of sober people did not differ from the decisions of drunk people. It was not the case that people who had been drinking alcohol calculated profits and losses more coolly. It seems that we are dispelling the myth of the drunk utilitarian', the researcher says. She adds that such a belief resulted, for example, from French studies conducted in bars. Polish experiments - conducted in more controlled conditions - do not confirm this conclusion.

The participants also filled out self-assessment questionnaires and declared how ethical they considered themselves to be; they also indicated how aggressive and intelligent they felt. Again, the results did not differ between the groups. 'Self-assessment of morality, aggressiveness, and intelligence may be too stable to be affected by the momentary changes in self-perception caused by alcoholic intoxication', the researchers comment in Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology (https://doi.org/10.1037/pha0000666).

Finally, there were tasks in which differences were observed between sober and intoxicated people. With these questions, the participants had to estimate the payment they would have to receive in order to do something ethically controversial, commit an act that would violate the concepts of good and evil in various dimensions. For example, the question was asked for how much money the respondent would be willing to: curse their parent and not apologize for it for a year (the authority scale), anonymously and falsely insult their homeland on a foreign radio station (the loyalty scale), refuse to help a friend who had previously helped the respondent (the fairness scale), kick a dog in the head (the care scale), pretend to be an animal for half an hour in a performance in which the participants, for example, crawl naked on the stage and urinate in public (the purity scale).

It turns out that intoxicated people - compared to sober people - indicated smaller amounts for which they would be able to harm someone or defile their body with some 'nasty' deed. However, alcohol did not change the rate of 'sin' when it came to dilemmas related to loyalty, authority, fairness.

To put it simply, this means that it may be easier to persuade someone intoxicated to relieve themselves in a public place or push an old lady. However, drunkenness will not cause someone to start giving false testimony, reveal a friend's secret or insult their favourite teacher. However, the study concerned only one strong drink. What happens to people who are more drunk - that was not tested in this study.

'We once agreed on a dose of alcohol that makes it illegal to drive. It would be equally good to know the dose that changes morality, and whether there is a threshold dose of alcohol that affects our moral decisions', says the psychologist from the University of Silesia.

'Morality may be a grandiloquent word, but it all translates into trust. And our society is based on trust. There are a number of studies in psychology that show that being a good person is the most important trait we look for in other people: in marriage, friendship, and employers - in subordinates. We want to have good people around us, people we trust, people with whom we feel safe, and not bad people who contribute to crime. That is why, in my opinion, it is so important to answer the question of where evil comes from in people and whether alcohol plays a role in this', Paruzel-Czachura concludes.

She adds that this answer has a real impact on the lives of many people - not only victims of drunk people, but also potential criminals who may do something bad when drunk. After all, something you do after one shot of alcohol can put you behind bars for 20 years.

The researchers plan to continue their research to examine the impact of alcohol on real behaviours, not just intentions. They also want to investigate the impact of alcohol on moral emotions, such as guilt or joy after doing something wrong. (PAP)

PAP - Science in Poland, Ludwika Tomala

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