Expectancy Accessibility, Alcohol Expectancies, and Intentions to Consume Alcohol

Drug use tends to correlate more strongly with positive expectancies than with negative expectancies. The expectancy-accessibility model provides one explanation for this disparity. This model suggests that the association between positive expectancies of a drug's effects and intentions to use the drug are larger because positive expectancies are often more accessible in memory. Previous work supports the model for positive expectancies and intentions to use smokeless tobacco. Positive expectancies correlated significantly with intentions to use smokeless tobacco only when they were primed in memory. The current study attempted to extend these findings to alcohol consumption. Positive expectancies correlated significantly with intentions to drink when they were primed in memory, as the model predicts. Nevertheless, positive expectancies also correlated significantly with intentions when negative expectancies were primed. In addition, negative expectancies were not associated with intentions to drink, regardless of priming condition. These latter results are not consistent with the model. These findings suggest that the expectancy-accessibility model may be limited.