Potions for Emotions: Do self-reported individual differences in negative-emotional drinking predict alcohol consumption in the laboratory following exposure to a negative experience?

Aims: Research suggests that self-reports on inferred motives for engaging in behavior may be biased by limited introspective access into such processes. Self-reports on observable behavior, on the other hand, may generate more accurate responses with which to predict behavior. The aim was to determine whether drinking alcohol in response to negative emotion () is best predicted by self-reported individual differences in () motives to use alcohol to regulate negative emotion, or () the degree to which negative emotion impacts alcohol consumption (observable behavior).