Alcohol as social lubricant.

This study examines how consuming alcohol differentially affects the communicative behavior and perceptions of high and low social self‐esteem (SSE) women as they engage in a brief interaction with a flirtatious male. Alcohol myopia theory proposes that alcohol affects behavior when it blocks a person's normal inhibitions about enacting a behavior. It was predicted that low SSE women would be more inhibited when talking to a flirtatious male than would high SSE women and, therefore administration of a social self‐esteem measure and random assignment to an alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage condition, participants (N=50) talked with an attractive, flirtatious male confederate. Low SSE women were less anxious and self‐disclosed more when drinking than when sober, whereas high SSE women were not significantly affected by alcohol consumption. The discussion highlights the complex and often contradictory effects of alcohol consumption on social interaction.     

Multiple Effects of Messages with Multiple Goals Some Perceived Outcomes of Responses to Sexual Harassment

Sexual amassment of employees by organizational superiors is a significant and all too common problem in the workplace. Victims of harassment typically want to achieve a variety of instrumental, relational, and identity management goals. The present study tested the perceived effectiveness of different messages with respect to several of these goals. Messages varied systematically with respect to what O'Keefe (1988) has termed “design logic” and “goal structure.” Participants (N= 577) generally perceived messages reflecting advanced design logics and goal structures as being most effective at projecting desired identities and preserving relationships. However, the effects for goal structure were qualified by interactions with gender and interpersonal cognitive complexity. Significantly, none of the messages were perceived as particularly effective at stopping the Liarasser's offensive conduct. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for both O'Keefe's analysis of messages and the management of sexual harassment in the workplace.     

The effects of violent video games on aggression.

Violent content video games such as Mortal Kombat and Doom have become very popular among children and adolescents, causing great concern for parents, teachers, and policy makers. This study cumulates findings across existing empirical research on the effects of violent video games to estimate overall effect size and discern important trends and moderating variables. Results suggest there is a smaller effect of violent video games on aggression than has been found with television violence on aggression. This effect is positively associated with type of game violence and negatively related to time spent playing the games. Directions for future programmatic research on video games are outlined.