Whether the subjects were occasional drinkers, heavy drinkers, or bona fide alcoholics (recruited by giving sign-up sheets to “cooperating hotel desk clerks and bartenders in areas known to be frequented by alcoholics”), none of them experienced loss of control unless they thought they were getting alcohol. Even the alcoholics drank no more than the non-drinkers if they were in the expect placebo/get ethanol group. Expectancies—people’s perceptions of what would happen if they had a drink—were critical to the effects of ethanol.
