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maia comments on Why do people ____? - Less Wrong Discussion

25 Post author: magfrump 04 May 2012 04:20AM

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Comment author: maia 05 May 2012 12:32:05AM 4 points [-]

It's only a pre-commitment as far as the placebo effect causes you to engage in embarrassing behavior. There are some physical effects of alcohol, but your willingness to break social boundaries while intoxicated seems to depend only on how strongly you believe you are intoxicated.

source on one study: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3035442.stm source seeming to indicate that even the physical effects can be placebo-related: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1403295/

Comment author: vi21maobk9vp 05 May 2012 05:54:31AM 1 point [-]

It may be not the whole effect, although a major part of it. My coworker says that the only time when he consumed noticeable amount of alcohol he was surprised by the thinking becoming more difficult. I can say nothing from personal experience because I cannot tolerate the taste long enough for any effects to manifest themselves.