Social drinking in a simulated tavern: an experimental analysis.

Five groups of five male social drinkers, who frequently drank with one another, were observed during a 30-min drinking period in an experimental tavern. Audio/video tapes of each session were rated by two observers for onset and duration of drinking and talking using a computer scoring system. Drinking was found to follow a negatively accelerating function, with session intakes correlated with reported weekly drinking. Group talking was found to increase during the session, supporting previous reports of increased socialization following drinking. Drinking patterns and intakes were found to be comparable to some of the observations from naturalistic tavern settings suggesting that the simulated tavern is an appropriate environment in which to study drinking consequences.