An Evolutionary Approach to Binge Drinking Impression Formation: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between France and Peru

Evolutionary medicine proposes studying alcohol use and abuse through the lens of modern evolutionary theory. This study ( https://osf.io/p48 uw/) follows this approach and uses an evolutionary framework to predict how young adults (18–35 years old) form impression of a binge drinker. We predicted that displaying sexual dysfunctions (short-term risk) in a binge drinking video would negatively influence attitudes and expectations of a target when compared to cognitive (short-term risk) or long-term deficits. In the following studies, we use a Zahavian framework to understand and influence impression formation of a male binge drinker among women (intersexual selection) and men (intrasexual competition) participants in a subsequent task. Via a randomized experimental online study in France ( N = 177, M = 23.39 [4.91], 43.50% men) and a preregistered conceptual replication study in Peru ( N = 176, M = 25.61 [4.76], 53.41% men), women exposed to a binge drinking video—describing sexual impotence after a binge drinking episode—tended to downgrade attractiveness evaluation of the binge drinker. However, male participants were not impacted by the different types of signals displayed in the videos. These results show that evolutionary theory could help us understand impression formation in binge drinking context and call for gender-specific health messages.

Operational Sex Ratio Predicts Binge Drinking Across U.S. Counties

Previous research suggests that binge drinking among young men serves as a “costly signal” to potential mates, such that the binge drinker is capable of bearing the harmful consequences of alcohol consumption. Here, we propose that binge drinking among young adults is conditionally dependent upon the signaler’s willingness to take risks, which is influenced by the local operational sex ratio (OSR). Using archived binge drinking estimates from 2009 to 2012 and Census Bureau records of OSRs, we tested the relationship between OSR and binge drinking rates at the county level across 3,143 U.S. counties against hypotheses drawn from evolutionary theory. Results from our mixed-effects models revealed that a higher overall OSR (i.e., more eligible men compared to women) was associated with higher male binge drinking rates but lower female binge drinking rates. A higher OSR particularly in the 20–29 and 50+ age groups predicted higher male binge drinking rates but lower female binge drinking rates. Our findings generally support predictions derived from evolutionary theory and suggest that binge drinking may function as a costly sexual signal, conditionally regulated by age and the local sex ratio.

Liquid Assets? the Short-Run Liabilities of Binge Drinking

We estimate the effect of binge drinking on road accidents, accident and emergency (A&E) attendances and arrests using a variety of unique English data and a two-sample instrumental variables estimation procedure. Drinking $10+$ units of alcohol in a single session increases road accidents by 18.6%, injury-related A&E attendances by 6.6% and arrests by 71%. The marginal increase from eight to $10+$ alcoholic units implies nearly 6,100 extra road accidents every year, 63,000 additional A&E attendances and 100,000 additional arrests. The externality per mile driven by a binge drinker is about five pence and the punishment that internalises this externality is equivalent to a fine of £22,800 per drunk driving arrest.

John O’Brien, Leaving Las Vegas (1990): suicide

This chapter views John O’Brien’s Leaving Las Vegas as a novel which is fully aware of the general tenets of Existentialism, and of the baggage that comes with being labelled ‘an alcoholic’, yet does not see that either of these categories are much use to him: the only way to live is to binge-drink his way to death. In taking this route the chapter views the novel as offering a response to Camus’s views in The Myth of Sisyphus around life’s meaning and the question of suicide. The chapter analyses the ways in which both ‘the alcoholic’ and ‘the prostitute’ choose their modes of existence, and how ‘love’ is ultimately not a viable source of meaning or salvation. The cultural context is very much that of an America deracinated by a hedonism for which the committed binge drinker becomes a logical endpoint, and in the face of which a philosophy like Existentialism begins to lose its purchase.

Dietary Patterns and Unhealthy Behaviors in Brazil: The Current Scenario

Background: Along with the epidemiologic transition that Brazil has experiencing in the last decades, the adoption of unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, diet westernization and physical inactivity, are also observed. It is well known that those factors, alone or combined promote the increase of cancer incidence. Aim: The aim of this study was to identify the main dietary patterns in Brazilian population and to measure their association with unhealthy behaviors as physical inactivity, binge drinking and smoking. Methods: The study was based on the National Health Survey data, representing the adult Brazilian population, conducted in 2013. A questionnaire containing 22 dietary intake questions was applied. Dietary patterns were identified through principal components analyses (PCA). Factor scores were divided into quartiles from lower to higher (Q1-Q4) and included in specific models as dependent variables. Poisson regression with robust error variance model were fitted to perform the association between Q1-Q4 and physical inactivity, binge drinking and smoking. The multivariate models were adjusted for socio-demographic and health-related variables. P value of < 0.05 was considered statically significant. Results: Total of survey's respondents was 60,202 (estimated population size=146,308,458). PCA identified three distinct dietary patterns: so called healthy - fruits, vegetables and natural fruit juice; protein - beans and meats; western - snacks, sweets and sugary beverages. Physically inactive individuals, smokers and binge drinkers were respectively 15%, 27% and 12% significantly less likely to adopt the healthy pattern when compared with active individuals, nonsmokers and nondrinkers. Younger individuals (18-24) were 52% (95% CI: 50%–55%) significantly less likely to adopt this pattern, compared with the oldest (60 and older). Younger individuals were 64% (95% CI: 57%–71%) more likely to adopt the protein pattern compared with their older counterparts (60 and older). Being physically inactive, smoker and binge drinker significantly increased the risk of adopting the protein pattern in 12%, 17%, 13% respectively, when compared with active individuals, nonsmokers and nondrinkers. The western pattern was significantly twice (101%, 95% CI: 92%–110%) more common among individual aged 18-24 than in the elderly (60 and older). Being a binge drinker increased significantly in 16% the likelihood of adopting the western pattern compared with nondrinkers. Being physically inactive and smoker was not significantly associated to this pattern. Conclusion: We identified significant associations between the 3 dietary patterns and unhealthy behaviors in the Brazilian adult population. However, the main risk factor related was younger age and the association was stronger for the western pattern. Our study shows that young adults must be targeted in the context of public health nutrition campaigns.

Lardner, Ring

Ring Lardner was a sharp-witted American humorist who had an amazing ear for malapropisms, idioms, and the lively vernacular of early 20th-century Chicago and later the East Coast. Originally a sports writer for baseball, Lardner branched out to short stories in 1914, when he wrote serial fiction for the Saturday Evening Post. This job lead to him honing the authorial control that lead to him creating three original and beloved fictional characters. They were the baseball player Jack Keefe (who appeared in the Saturday Evening Post stories); later, an unnamed but sarcastic husband; and years later, Fred Gross, an inept detective. His unique, first-person stories held an air of authenticity and daring. Readers loved his work for the style and subjects that transcended the stodgy halls of refined literature, and yet intellectuals mined them for the brilliant irony and cultural criticism. Lardner developed a reputation as a complex writer whose column, nonetheless, was read weekly by the mainstream, not just the experts. Additionally, critics saw immediate value in how Lardner let himself be fascinated by the social microcosm of baseball (with minor leaguers maneuvering to rise in the ranks); he saw in it a parallel to class struggles in America. When he later became an actual Long Island neighbor of American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, he sought to capture in literature the decadence of the American lifestyle. His later work was fiercely critical of shallow attitudes, social climbing, and the tendency for business interests to undermine culture. By 1929, Lardner's rough lifestyle and utter disenchantment with America—as well as a tuberculosis diagnosis—took a toll on his creative output. He had been a binge drinker since his days as Fitzgerald's socialite neighbor. His drinking was fueled by his deep vein of disgust for his own society. His wildly comedic and witty writing belied his own weaknesses, including succumbing to the stress of being financially responsible for his family. Monetary success eventually came in 1930, when he coauthored a musical, “June Moon.” It was fleeting, however; the next years saw him produce a weekly radio column and rehash the Jack Keefe adventures in a 1933 redux of fictional baseball letters, titled Lose with a Smile. He died that year, of a heart attack, on September 25. He was forty-eight years old.