The impact of alcohol cognitions and contexts on perspective tasking

Alcohol-related cognitions can have a detrimental effect on social interactions even in the absence of alcohol consumption. Over two experiments we examined the impact of alcohol-related cognitions and contexts on perspective taking ability, which is the cornerstone of most social interactions. Experiment 1 (N=89) explored how alcohol-related environments and alcohol urges influence perspective taking. Experiment 2 (N=58) examined whether the presence of alcohol-related objects influences perspective taking. Neither alcohol-related environments nor alcohol urges influenced perspective taking (all ps>.1). However, when alcohol objects were in shared view and other objects were in privileged view (i.e. behind an<br />avatar but available to the participant) participants were slower to report objects from their own perspective (p<.05). These findings indicate that the avatar’s gaze and the salient nature<br />of alcohol objects combined to draw and hold participants’ attention towards common ground. Implications for the role of attention in perspective taking will be discussed.