NCT07390084

Exploring the Decision to Drink (More) Alcohol Following Manipulations of Stress and Social Context

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 160 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Washington · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 21 Years – 50 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This preregistration documents an experiment examining the effects of acute stress and social context on alcohol-related decision-making. The study uses a 2x2 factorial design (stress vs. control × social vs. alone) with dyadic recruitment.

Detailed description

Behavioral data: Our first set of hypotheses tests whether the decision is influenced by stress and social context: H1a: Stress affects the decision between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, so that participants in the stress conditions choose alcoholic over non-alcoholic drinks more often compared to participants in the no stress conditions. H1b: Social context affects the decision between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, so that participants in the social conditions choose alcoholic over non-alcoholic drinks more often compared to participants in the alone conditions. H1c: We test two competing predictions: (I) The effect of stress on the decision between alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks is modulated by social context, so that the effect of stress is stronger for participants that are in the social condition. (II) The effect of stress on the decision between alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks is modulated by social context, so that the effect of stress is weaker for participants that are in the social condition Drift diffusion modeling: Our second set of hypotheses test how the decision might be influenced by stress and social context: H2a: Stress affects the bias (but not the drift rate or boundary) parameter of the drift diffusion model, so that the bias parameter is more positive for participants in the stress conditions. H2b: Social context affects the bias (but not the drift rate or boundary) parameter of the drift diffusion model, so that the bias parameter is more positive for participants in the social conditions. H2c: Stress and social context have an interactive effect on the bias (but not the drift rate or boundary) parameter of the drift diffusion model, so that the bias parameter is either more or less positive for stressed participants who are in the social condition (in line with H1c).

Conditions

• Psychological Stress
• Social Interaction

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Stress	Participants randomly assigned to the stress condition will undergo the standard protocol of the Trier Social Stress Test. Participants randomly assigned to the control condition will undergo a validated, non-stressful control procedure mirroring the TSST.
OTHER	Social Context	Participants randomly assigned to the social condition will make decisions about consuming alcohol with a known peer. Participants randomly assigned to the control condition will make decisions about consuming alcohol alone.

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-02-01
• Primary completion: 2027-06-30
• Completion: 2027-06-30
• First posted: 2026-02-05
• Last updated: 2026-02-06