There Are Four Types Of Drinker According To Scientists - Which One Are You?

21-Dec-18 12:18 PM
Sushmita Baruah

Have you ever stopped to consider why it is you choose to drink? Personally, everyone can come up with many reasons why he or she is drinking, which makes a scientific understanding of the reasons difficult. But there is something called the motivational model of alcohol use, that argues we drink because we expect a change in how we feel after we do. Originally developed to help treat alcohol dependence, the ideas described in the model led to a new understanding of what motivates people to drink.

More precisely, the model assumes people drink to increase positive feelings or decrease negative ones. They’re also motivated by internal rewards such as enhancement of a desired personal emotional state, or by external rewards such as social approval.

This results in all drinking motives falling into one of four categories: enhancement (because it’s exciting), coping (to forget about my worries), social (to celebrate), and conformity (to fit in). Drinkers can be high or low in any number of drinking motives – people are not necessarily one type of drinker or the other.

1. The ‘social’ drinker

To date, nearly all the research on drinking motives has been done on teens and young adults. Across cultures and countries, social motives are the most common reason young people give for drinking alcohol. In this model, social drinking may be about increasing the amount of fun you are having with your friends. This fits in with the idea that drinking is mainly a social pastime. Drinking for social motives is associated with moderate alcohol use.

2. The ‘conforming’ drinker

When people only drink on social occasions because they want to fit in – not because it’s a choice they would normally make – they drink less than those who drink mainly for other reasons. These are the people who will sip a glass of champagne for a toast, or keep a wine in their hand to avoid feeling different from the drinkers around them.

3. The 'enhancement' drinker

Drinking for enhancement goes beyond social drinking - these people actively drink in order to feel drunk. Enhancement drinkers are more likely to be extroverted, impulsive, aggressive and have a risk-taking personality.

4. The ‘coping’ drinker

People who use drinking as a coping mechanism are more likely to consume larger amounts than any other type of drinker. These people may use drinking to cope with other problems in their life - particularly those related to anxiety and depression - and are more likely to be female. While it may be effective in the short term, drinking to cope with problems leads to worse long-term consequences. This may be because the problems that led to the drinking in the first place are not being addressed.