Alcohol Expectancies and Their Relationship to Actual Drinking Experiences

44 undergraduate normal drinkers participated in a social task in drinking and nondrinking conditions and rated their subjective experiences and their perception of experiences of other group members along 7 alcohol expectancy dimensions. In the drinking condition, Ss rated their experiences as being positively enhanced on those dimensions predicted by the expectancy literature, but did not report experiencing the negative cognitive and motor effects associated with alcohol consumption. It is concluded that in social situations, individuals\u27 alcohol expectancies and experiences coincide for socially relevant variables, but do not for variables related to cognitive skills