United States: Do you think you’re too old to feel pressure from friends about drinking? A new study says that might not be true! The study, which was shared on January 1, shows that who you’re friends with can affect how much you drink.
Researchers found that it’s not just young people, but adults too, who can be influenced by their social circles. They discovered that the people around us—like friends and family—can play a big part in whether we drink a lot or not.
The researchers pointed out that people cannot escape feedback loops – everyone receives feedback from members of their social networks and their own drinking.
As reported by the HealthDay, “Alcohol drinking behavior is a product of, and a factor in the interpersonal context that the person occupies” researchers stated.
In the study, information about the volunteer participants of more than 1700 in a long-term project concerning heart disease situated in Framingham, Massachusetts was used.
Such information items involved drinking profile, smoking behaviour and working efficiency of people, their relatives and friends, and many more.
The study also found that a person’s drinking profile depended on the amount of drinking his friends indulged in, irrespective of the age.
Researchers said that those who drank heavily interacted more with individuals who also drank heavily, while those who rarely drank interacted with individuals who did not take alcohol at all.
Moreover, which friends one acquired were drinking buddies, the level of drinking grew over time; but if more of friends one accrued were teetotaling, then alcohol consumption decreased.
“Smoking and drinking, however, were not linked in any significant way from one year to the next to job prestige or socioeconomic status,” the authors summarized in the Research Society on Alcoholism news release.