Alcohol and the Power of Suggestion Their Interactive Effects on the Insight Phase of Creative Problem Solving

Running Head: ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION: THEIR INTERACTIVE EFFECTS ON THE INSIGHT PHASE OF CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in Psychology ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 2012 2 ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION Table of Contents Abstract.........................................................................................................................5 Introduction...................................................................................................................6 Hypotheses......................................................................................................17 Method........................................................................................................................18 Participants......................................................................................................18 Material and Apparatus...................................................................................19 Procedure and Design......................................................................................20 Results.........................................................................................................................23 Descriptive Statistics.......................................................................................23 Inferential Statistics.........................................................................................24 Discussion...................................................................................................................26 References...................................................................................................................34 Tables and Figures......................................................................................................37 Appendices..................................................................................................................40 3 ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION List of Illustrations 1. Table 1.......................................................................................................................18 2. Table 2.......................................................................................................................37 3. Figure 1......................................................................................................................38 4. Figure 2......................................................................................................................39 4 ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION Abstract It is a commonly held expectation that the consumption of alcohol will enhance and individual’s creative process. There is also a wide body of literature demonstrating the powerful effects a positive or a negative suggestion can have on a persons cognitive processes. The present study looks at how type of alcohol—a real or a sham drink—and how type of suggestion effect people’s ability to solve creative insight problems. As predicted, we found that participants receiving a sham-alcohol drink—those who believe they are consuming alcohol but in fact are not—outperform those who receive a real alcohol drink, and participants who receive a positive suggestion about how alcohol will effect their insight problem solving abilities outperform those who receive a negative or control suggestion. Keywords: alcohol, creativity, suggestion, insight 5 ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 6 Alcohol and the Power of Suggestion: Their Interactive Effects on the Insight Phase of Creative Problem Solving Creativity is a word we hear often in our daily lives, sometimes referring to an interesting way to solve a simple problem, and sometimes referring to a unique work of art. The phenomenon of creativity is usually characterized as an innate ability, and its abstract nature allows it to manifest itself in many different forms. Creativity is not easy to define; but for our purposes we will refer to it as the ability to generate unique and new solutions, or works that deviate from the norm (Hicks et. al., 2011). It is important to understand that the creative process can be broken down into four different major phases: (i) preparation, (ii) incubation, (iii) insight, and (iv) verification (Norlander & Gustafson, 1996; Wallas, 1926). The skill to think creatively, or produce something original, is a quality that is demanded of all artists; however, an extremely talented songwriter does not automatically make for an extremely talented choreographer. This can be attributed to the “preparation” phase mentioned above. One must be a prepared expert in his or her own field before creative inspiration can occur, this means having up to 10 years or 10,000 hours of experience (Hayes, 1981). The incubation phase is when the individual has a problem or idea in their unconscious mind, and the person is not fully aware they are considering and contemplating the problem or creative work yet. The insight phase is the moment of solution—which will be discussed further in a moment—and the verification phase is when the individual makes sure their solution is correct, or in the case of an artist, that their piece of art truly is unique and appealing (Norlander & Gustafson, 1996). Non-insight problems demand explicit cognitive processes that gradually bring the problem solver closer to the solution, and can be solved using known rules such as ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 7 algorithms or heuristics. In non-insight problems the problem solver is generally engaging in reproductive thinking—a term used by Gestalt psychologists to describe the use of a pattern or already known method for solving the problem. Insight problems however—the type of problems that can demonstrate creativity—tend to be more complex or difficult to define. They are usually set up in a way that allows for many possible analyses by the problem-solver, and there is generally an “aha!” moment where the problem solver appears to come to a solution quite suddenly (Sebastian & Sun, 2010). Finding the correct solution to such a problem is contingent upon the individual’s personal interpretation; typically forcing them to think in a way in which they normally would not. Insight problem-solvers are generally unable to describe how they reached the answer, and would be incapable of taking anyone step by step through their solution process. In Gestalt terms, the problem solver is engaging in productive thinking, coming up with unique and new ideas that do not come from previously learned tactics or strategies. This phenomenon is what we term as “creative insight”, as rule-based problem-solving strategies are unable to account for the lack of a deliberate step-by-step movement towards a solution. Insight problems can traditionally be broken down into two categories—verbal and spatial. Verbal insight problems require the individual to interpret the words or the phrasing of the problem in a way they normally may not. Spatial problems often involve the individual manipulating hypothetical objects in their mind to solve the problem. It is a commonly held expectation that an individual’s ability to engage in activities that command such creative and novel thinking such as insight problems is enhanced after the consumption of psychoactive substances, such as alcohol and a ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 8 number of other drugs (Hicks, Friedman, Pederson, McCarthy, 2011). Creative artists and individuals are often known for their usage of psychoactive substances in order to enhance their ability to generate creative works (Lapp, Collins, & Izzo, 1994). Creativity is exhibited in some way by almost all well-known successful artists, musicians, stand-up comedians, actors, and even politicians. This notion is constantly reinforced by the publicized battles against drug and alcohol addiction fought by those involved in more creative lines of work. In addition to the multitude of examples of drug-related deaths that can be attributed to the “Hollywood lifestyle”, the endless list also includes the likes of Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, who was an alleged ergot consumer (the fungus used to synthesize LSD), The Beatles, who were known to write many of their songs while drunk, Diane Arbus, famous photographer known for her extraordinary black-and-white portrayal of “abnormal” communities (giants, dwarfs, Siamese twins, etc.), and Desmond Donnelly, a politician who died of a barbiturate overdose. Even teenagers who aren’t necessarily famous musicians or writers report using alcohol to make them more creative. A study done by Novacek, Raspin, and Hogan (1990) administered the “Reasons for Using Drugs Survey” to poll middle and high school students on their reasons for substance use (Novacek, Raspin & Hogan, 1990). “To be more creative” showed up as one of the main reasons why adolescents choose to use alcohol and drugs. Men are more likely to use alcohol to enhance creativity than women; however, both genders reported using it for that reason (Novacek, Raspin & Hogan, 1990). This shows that the use of alcohol for creative purposes is not only a phenomenon among famous artists, but among common individuals as well. It is likely that many of the salient cases of famous artists going into rehab for alcohol and other ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 9 drugs are picked up on by the general public, fueling the image that creative types use alcohol and other psychoactive substances to enhance their creative thinking abilities. So, the question that needs to be addressed is whether these substances can actually promote creativity? And if possible, is the effect physiological or psychological? It is hard to say whether being under the influence of a particular substance does cultivate enhanced creative thinking patterns, or whether professions which demand a high level of creativity simply tend to attract those with a propensity towards substance abuse. The attraction to drugs may be due to the pressure felt by artists to produce such great works. Several musicians and writers insist that the alcohol is the driving force behind their creativity and plays a “disinhibitory role”, which is to say that the alcohol helps them to accept and play with their own ideas, rather than being overly critical and dismissing potentially creative works of art prematurely (Norlander & Gustafson, 1996). However, studies have shown that the effects of alcohol are often contingent upon the expectancies about it, as opposed to its physiological effects alone (Lapp, Collins, & Izzo, 1994). Other studies have also shown that simply the suggestion of alcohol, or looking at substance related words and primes such as “gin”, “cocktail”, “bar”, etc. could influence thinking in a way that matches up with alcohol expectancies (Hicks, Friedman, McCarthy & Pederson, 2011). Hicks et. al. demonstrated that participants who were exposed to alcohol related primes performed better on a divergent thinking task than participants who were exposed to neutral primes. These results suggest that both cognitive and behavioral changes can be triggered by primes or stimuli related to alcohol, even when no alcohol is actually consumed (Hicks, Friedman, McCarthy & Pederson, 2011). This ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 10 study, above all else, demonstrates the importance of the psychological effects and expectations associated with alcohol consumption. The psychological effects as well as the expectancies surrounding alcohol consumption are extremely powerful, as they have the potential to alter our cognitive processes. Assefi and Garry (2003) demonstrated this in their study that explored the “misinformation effect”. The typical misinformation effect was seen to occur when participants were misled to remember events that did not actually take place (Assefi and Garry, 2003). These two researchers conducted an interesting study regarding how alcohol expectancies can affect cognition and memory abilities. When participants who took part in a misinformation effect study were misled to remember events that did not actually take place, the typical misinformation effect occurred. When participants who were told they had consumed alcohol (even though they hadn’t) were asked to respond to these misleading questions about a film they had watched previously, they only got one question correct; whereas participants who knew they were drinking tonic got two questions correct (Assefi & Garry, 2003). The results of this study done by Assefi and Garry (2003) indicate that merely suggesting to subjects that they had consumed alcohol causes them to be “significantly more susceptible to misleading postevent suggestion” (Assefi & Garry, 2003, p.3). It highlights the importance of believing one is consuming alcohol, as well as the strong effects of the power of suggestion over people’s cognitive processing abilities. A study conducted by Lapp et. al., (1994) which examined people’s ability to come up with novel arrangements of wildflowers also found that the enhancement of creative thinking and the ability to create unique flower arrangements came from the ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 11 expected rather than the physiological effects of alcohol. Lapp et. al. believed this to be the case because alcohol may give people the “courage to create”—they may be less critical, more accepting, and more open to new ideas, and it may also encourage them to deviate from the norm. The inhibition that helps an individual regulate their behavior is increasingly lowered as the dosage of alcohol consumed increases (Noel, Tomberg, Verbanck, & Campenella, 2010). At this point, it seems clear that the expectancy of alcohol plays a key role in obtaining enhanced creative insight problem solving effects, yet the expectancy of receiving alcohol paired with receiving the actual substance also produces these effects. An experiment on the effect of alcohol on creative abilities was done in which participants were asked to plan an experiment of their own to investigate the importance of heredity and environment. They were later scored by a panel of judges on the level of creativity in their responses (Norlander & Gustafson, 1996). One group was given alcohol, and another was not. It was found that participants in the alcohol group showed higher levels of originality in their experiment designs. They also found that moderate amounts of alcohol facilitate the flow of ideas during the incubation phase of the creative process (Norlander & Gustafson, 1996). As with writing a novel or designing a dress, a distinct type of creative ability is demonstrated whilst solving insight problems. As described in the four stages of creativity earlier in the paper, insight is one of those stages (Norlander & Gustafson, 1996). Several studies, including the original work done by Graham Wallas in 1926, have found that it is during the incubation phase, which directly precedes the insight phase, that alcohol has the highest positive effect on enhancing creativity (Norlander & ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 12 Gustafson, 1996). Essentially, alcohol facilitates insight during the incubation phase. Because insight is a step in the creative process, we chose to focus our study on this particular unique part of creativity to measure how alcohol may affect creative insight Just how powerful can the effect of an expectation or a suggestion of how a substance (such as alcohol) will affect someone truly be on an individual? One can see the power of expectation and positive suggestion put to use in medicine with the use of placebos to help cure patients of a plethora of ailments, but it is also apparent as part of our day-to-day life, and it can affect us in both positive and negative ways. The brain is capable of taking something as simple as an expectation about how a substance may make one feel, and turning that expectation into real results. The outcome of these expectations is known as the placebo effect. The word placebo appeared in the English language around the 13th century, and was translated from the Latin word meaning “to please, to give pleasure, to suit, to satisfy” (Geers, Weiland, Kosbab, Landry and Helfer, 2005). The roots of the word placebo clearly show that there is a strong element of motivation and expectation in the word. A placebo is simply a treatment administered to fulfill a desire of the patient (Geers et. al., 2005). Although many definitions exist, we will define a placebo as an inert substance or procedure that has positive effects on the outcome (Bootzin & Bailey, 2005). There are several explanations regarding the mechanisms underlying the placebo effect. For the purposes of our study we will be focusing on the expectancy perspective. This approach states that the placebo effect is “driven by the anticipation that a treatment will result in a particular outcome” (Geers et. al, 2005, p. 37). A theory known as the Response Expectancy Theory explains that response expectancy is a person’s automatic ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 13 and anticipated reaction to situational cues, and these expectancies are shown to be selfconfirming (Geers, et al., 2005). The placebo effect works in a way so that when people expect a specific substance to produce a certain feeling, they automatically and unconsciously set into motion behaviors that will produce that outcome (Clifassefi, Harper, Engle, Garry & Parker, 2008). Those outcomes are then incorrectly attributed to the substance, and they are actually a result of their own mind. Suggestions can affect us positively in daily life, as well as in a medical setting. People who are told they have consumed alcohol will become more social and outgoing, even if no alcohol was actually consumed. Simply thinking and believing that something is going to affect you, however inert the substance is, often makes it so. A fairly recent analysis of anti-depressant medication showed that 25% of the drug effect could be attributed to active medication, 50% to the placebo effect, and 25% to other non-specific factors (Kirsch and Sapirstein, 1998). This research demonstrates that when a patient ingests a substance and expects it to make them feel better, the fact that they do feel better has more to do with their preconceived notions than the active ingredients in the medication, albeit the medication does play some role. The nocebo effect—the effect of a negative suggestion—can be defined as negative effects produced by inert substances or procedures that were designed to cause those negative effects. For example, a nocebo effect would be taking place if an individual were to be given an inert substance, told it would cause headaches, and a headache developed. The nocebo works according to the same mechanism as the placebo effect, however opposite results are almost always found. Instead of an inert substance having positive effects, the inert substance causes negative effects. The nocebo effect and ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 14 effect of negative suggestion is a much less commonly studied phenomenon due to its relative lack of uses in medicine. Despite this, the phenomenon is quite relevant to the field of psychology: the fact that the human mind will believe something that can cause negative effects to the body and mind is quite fascinating. One study shows the effect of negative suggestion by causing participants either a slight amount of pain, or a applying a histamine and making them itch. Participants who were told to expect high amounts of itch or pain reported feeling more pain and itch than participants who were told to expect low amounts of itch and pain, even though both groups were given the same physical intensity of each dose (van Laarhoven, Vogelaar, Wilder-Smith, van Riel, van de Kerkhof, Kraaimaat, and Evers, 2011). By illustrating that participants who expected to feel greater amounts of pain and/or itch did in fact do so, this study successfully demonstrates the power of negative suggestion in a situation. The placebo and nocebo effects—the effect of giving someone a positive and a negative suggestion—were demonstrated together very clearly in one particular study conducted on pain thresholds. Participant’s hands were submerged in ice water—one group was informed of the beneficial effects of ice-water submersion (the positive suggestion/placebo group), another was told of its negative effects (the negative suggestion/nocebo group) and the last was given no suggestion (the control group). Participants’ overall ability to tolerate pain was found by simply asking them to submerge their hand in ice water, and then take it out at the first sign of discomfort. This was done before any “suggestions” were given. The average time each participant left his or her hand submerged was 61.65 seconds. They then re-submerged their hand after it was warmed and after they heard either the beneficial effects or the negative effects the ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 15 ice water would have. Participants who heard the beneficial effects of ice water submersion left their hands in the water for an average of 105.70 seconds before the felt any discomfort, participants who heard the negative effects had their hands submerged for a mere 38.50 seconds before feeling the first signs of discomfort, and the control group left their hands submerged for 56.5 seconds (Staats, Hekmat, & Staats, 1998). Both groups deviated significantly from the control and from the baseline, demonstrating how a suggestion can alter a human’s pain threshold. Not surprisingly, the positive suggestion condition had the highest pain tolerance for the ice water, the negative suggestion condition had the lowest tolerance, and the control group was in between (Staats, Hekmat, & Staats, 1998). In the present study, we plan to explore the effects of how a positive or a negative suggestion of how alcohol will affect people’s ability to solve creative insight problems actually has a measurable effect on their creative insight abilities. Can suggesting to people that alcohol will improve or hinder their ability to solve insight problems affect their ability to solve problems correctly? Also, we examine if is it the actual active substance of alcohol that has an effect, or just the expectation and belief that one is consuming alcohol. Past research has effectively demonstrated the power of expectations and suggestions on people’s perceptions, the link between alcohol and creativity, the physiological versus psychological effects of actually consuming and expecting to consume alcohol, and the overwhelming power of positive and negative suggestions. This study looks at all of these phenomena combined into in one multi-faceted experiment. We plan to investigate how consuming moderate amounts of alcohol in conjunction with receiving a positive, negative, or control/neutral suggestion will affect participants’ ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 16 creative insight problem solving abilities. We also intend to investigate whether actually consuming alcohol will heighten the creative problem solving abilities beyond simply believing one is consuming alcohol. Essentially, we ask whether expectancy is the only necessary component for improved creativity, or whether having the actual physiologically altering substance (i.e., alcohol), will foster even higher levels of creative problem solving abilities. No formal research has been done on the differences between verbal and spatial creative insight problems and how alcohol and suggestions may affect the solution rate of one or another, however we will be giving both spatial and verbal insight problems to participants. Since it is known that verbal and spatial reasoning often involve separate parts of the brain, providing both spatial and verbal insight problems will allow us to explore whether there is any variation in participant’s problem solving abilities within the different conditions. The three independent variables that the present study explores are whether we actually gave the participant alcohol—the alcohol vs. sham-alcohol groups, the type of suggestion we gave to participants about how alcohol would affect their problem solving abilities—positively, negatively, or no suggestion at all (control), and the type of problem—spatial versus verbal. We explored these variables by giving participants an alcoholic beverage or a sham non-alcoholic beverage, (though all were made to believe that the beverage contained alcohol). Then, depending on the group, we suggested to them that the alcohol would help, hinder, or have no effect their performance on the upcoming creative insight problems. ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 17 Hypotheses The current study has three key main effect hypotheses and one main effect exploratory hypothesis: Hypothesis1: We predict that participants who are in the sham-alcohol condition who will be receiving only tonic water and lime, will perform better than participants who are in the real alcohol condition. Both groups will believe they are consuming alcohol; therefore the expectancy effect will remain intact for both groups. However, we feel that not actually consuming the alcohol will allow cognitive capabilities to remain intact while still experiencing the effects of believing one has consumed alcohol. Hypothesis 2: We predict that the performance of participants who receive a positive suggestion about the effects of alcohol on a creative insight problemsolving task will perform significantly better than those who receive a control or negative suggestion. Hypothesis 3: We predict that participants who receive a negative suggestion regarding the effects of alcohol on their performance on the same creative insight problem solving task will perform significantly worse than participants who received a positive or control suggestion. Hypothesis 4: Lastly, because there has not been any research done on spatial versus verbal problems, we are unable to make a definite prediction on how suggestion and alcohol will influence solution rates of the verbal versus spatial problems. This part of the study is more exploratory, and we hope to find some interesting interaction effects between problem type, alcohol type and suggestion 18 ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION type. We are not however, looking for any main effects on problem type, due to the fact that we piloted for verbal and spatial problems to have approximately equal solution rates Method Participants A total of 116 students, 55 men and 61 women, where recruited to participate in this study. All the participants currently attended Whitman College and were between the ages of 21 and 23. (M=21.41, SD=0.493). Participants were randomly divided into one of six conditions: alcohol/positive suggestion (placebo), alcohol/negative suggestion (nocebo), alcohol/control suggestion, sham-alcohol/positive suggestion (placebo), shamalcohol/negative suggestion (nocebo), and sham-alcohol/control, (See Table 1). The majority of participants identified as Caucasian, and the remaining as Asian (9.2%), African American (1.7%) or Hispanic/Latino (2.5%). Students were recruited from on campus via flyers, email, and word of mouth. Students enrolled in psychology courses in which the professor was offering extra credit for participating in an experiment were compensated with some extra credit in those courses. Table 1. Positive Suggestion (Placebo) Negative Suggestion (Nocebo) No Suggestion (Control) Alcohol/Positive Alcohol Suggestion Alcohol/Negative Suggestion Alcohol/Control ShamSham-alcohol/Positive Alcohol Suggestion Sham-alcohol/Negative Suggestion ShamAlcohol/Control ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 19 Materials and Apparatus We used three different suggestion speeches, a speech that suggested that alcohol would improve performance on insight problems, a speech that suggested that alcohol would hinder performance on insight problems, and a speech that gave no suggestion either way as to how alcohol would affect creative insight problem solving abilities (Appendix A). The mixed drinks were made from a mix of Safeway brand tonic water, Burnettes brand vodka, limejuice, and ice. We used 12 insight problems, 6 of which were designated verbal, and 6 of which were designated spatial (See appendix B for problems). We chose those 12 problems based on pilot study data from 38 Whitman College students. Participants in the pilot study were given 16 insight problems—8 verbal and 8 spatial—from the following sources (Schooler, Ohlsson, & Brooks, 1993; Metcalfe, 1986; Bransford & Stein, 1993; & Lavine, M.). The problems that were chosen had a 42.4% successful solution rate overall, meaning that 42.4% of people who encountered the problem answered it correctly. Problems identified as spatial had a solution rate of 42.9%, and problems identified as verbal had a solution rate of 41.9%. This percentage was chosen in order to avoid both ceiling and floor effects on specific problems. The Breathalyzer we used was a BACtrack S75 Pro. It is a police grade blood alcohol level tester, and is accurate to +/- 0.005. A simple stopwatch was also used to time the four- minute intervals the participants had to solve each insight problem. ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 20 Procedure and Design Our study had three independent variables. The first independent variable was whether we actually gave the participant alcohol—the alcohol vs. sham alcohol condition. The second independent variable was the type of suggestion we gave to participants about how alcohol would affect their problem solving abilities—positively, negatively, or no suggestion at all (control). The third independent variable was type of problem—spatial versus verbal. The dependent variable was the percent of insight problems participants were able to correctly solve. We also looked specifically at whether the correctly solved problems were spatial or verbal. We obtained our sample by sending out emails to the student listerve—requesting participation of any student over 21—by putting up flyers around campus, and by standing in the library each evening for one week asking students if they would be interested in participating. Participants were tested in groups of ten. Those groups of ten were created based on when people were available to participate in the study. Once a group of ten was established, that group was assigned to be a positive suggestion, negative suggestion, or no suggestion group. Then, each participant group was randomly assigned to either receive the alcoholic beverage, or the non-alcoholic sham beverage. Each participant’s beverage was prepared ahead of time. Each glass had the participants name written on it. For the alcohol groups, we measured the correct amount of alcohol that would be needed to put each individuals blood alcohol level at 0.05 based on his or her approximate weight that they provided for us via email before the start of the experiment. We did this by consulting a chart (Virginia Tech Alcohol Abuse Prevention chart, 2006) that showed ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 21 how many ounces of alcohol a person of a certain weight and gender must consume in order to reach a certain blood alcohol level. We then filled the cup ¼ of the way with ice, filled the cup the rest of the way up with tonic water, and lined the rim of the glass with a lime that had been soaking in vodka for 24 hours. For participants assigned to the sham alcohol group, we obtained their weight for deception purposes, however no alcohol was poured into their cup. Instead, the cups were filled ¼ of the way with ice, tonic water was added until the cup was full, and the rim of the glass was lined with lime that had been soaking in vodka for 24 hours in order to deceive participants and make them believe their drink was in fact alcoholic. The non-alcoholic beverages were made according to the procedures from the BARLAB—a psychology lab that studies alcohol and behavior—run by Jason Kilmer at the University of Washington (Personal Communication). At each seat we placed a packet with an informed consent form, the demographics form, the suggestion dialogue, the 12 insight problems, a small book of word-circle puzzles, and each participant’s individually prepared drink. The experiment was conducted in a classroom on the first floor of Maxey Hall on Whitman College campus in Walla Walla, Washington. Once participants arrived, their state-issued ID was checked to ensure that they were 21 years of age or older, and they were given a Breathalyzer test to ensure their blood alcohol level was 0.00. They were then asked to sit down at the seat with the cup that had their name on it, to read and sign the informed consent form, and fill out the demographics sheet. Each participant was then given a small amount of mouthwash, and asked to rinse his or her mouth for 15 seconds. They were told that this was to ensure uniformity of mouth content. Participants were then directed to follow along on with the appropriate suggestion dialogue sheet we ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 22 provided them while we read it out loud. They were then given 10 minutes to consume their entire beverage at their seat. Participants were allowed to socialize with those around them, but were asked not to discuss anything about the present study. Once everyone had finished their beverage, participants were then given instructions and told they would have four minutes to solve each insight problem. Once the four minutes were up, participants would be instructed to turn the page and begin the next problem. They were not permitted to go back to any previously completed or attempted problems, and were told to write “seen before” on any problems they had encountered previously. Participants then began working on the insight problems, and every four minutes, they were instructed to turn the page to the next problem, regardless of whether or not they had completed the one they were currently working on. If a participant finished a problem early, they were permitted to do the word-circle puzzles we provided for them at their seat. Once all 12 problems were completed, we collected the packets, and informed participants that they would be emailed a debriefing form once the data collection was complete. Participants were asked verbally not to discuss any aspects of the study with anyone until the experiment was complete, and the data were fully analyzed. They were asked if they had any questions, and were thanked for participating. Each participant was given a Breathalyzer test upon leaving to ensure their blood alcohol level was below 0.08. We then offered to walk the participants who had consumed alcohol back to their homes to ensure they made it home safely. Once the study was complete and all data was analyzed, participants were emailed a full debriefing form disclosing the deception that had taken place during the study. They were again reassured that they could contact us if they had any further questions. ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 23 Results Descriptive Statistics Data from all 116 participants were deemed valid and included in analysis (n = 116). Problems were scored as correct, previously seen (i.e. the participant had already encountered the problem at some other time and therefore knew the answer), incorrect, or incorrect due to timing out (i.e. they did not write down an answer at all). Essentially, problems could be incorrect in two ways—either a wrong answer was written down (incorrect), or simply no answer was written down at all (incorrect due to timing out). We calculated the percentage of problems correct by dividing the number of problems the participant solved correctly by the number of problems they attempted. Problems that participants had previously seen were discarded and not counted as attempted problems. The mean solution rate for participants who received a positive suggestion was M = 0.683, SD=0.162, for those who received a control suggestion it was M = 0.502, SD = 0.118, and for those who received a negative suggestion it was M = 0.316, SD = 0.127. From this data, we can see that the mean solution rates of participants who received a positive suggestion performed the best on the creative insight problem-solving task, those who received a negative suggestion performed the worst, and those who received a control suggestion performed at an intermediary level. The mean solution rate for participants in the alcohol group was M = 0.468, SD = 0.199 and for those in the sham alcohol group—participants who believed they were consuming alcohol but were not actually—the mean solution rate was M = 0.539, SD = 0.202. The overall mean solution rate for spatial problems was found to be M = 0.490, SD = 0.246 and the overall mean solution rate for verbal problems is M = 0.514, SD = 0.254. ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 24 Inferential Statistics Using the mean values for the overall solution rates, we examined whether there was a significant difference in mean correct solutions between the type of suggestion participants were given (positive, control, or negative). We also examined whether the type of alcohol given to participants (sham alcohol versus real alcohol) significantly affected their ability to solve creative insight problems. In addition, although we had no formal hypothesis, we looked at the mean differences in people’s ability to solve verbal versus spatial insight problems. We analyzed this data through the use of a mixed-model ANOVA using an alpha level of α = 0.05. Results support our first main effect hypothesis that participants who received the sham alcohol—those who only believed they were consuming alcohol—would perform better on the creative insight problem solving task than participants who received a real alcoholic beverage, F(1, 114) = 7.818, p = 0.009. The strength of the relationship as indexed by partial eta squared was 0.061. Results also support our next main effect hypothesis that participants who receive a positive suggestion will perform significantly better than those who receive a control or negative suggestion. Results also support our third hypothesis, which states that participants who receive a negative suggestion will perform significantly worse than those who receive a positive or control suggestion. Our results indicate significant differences between overall mean solution rates between positive, control, and negative suggestion that support our predictions. F(2,113) = 76.934, p = 0.0001. The strength of the relationship as indexed by partial eta squared was 0.583. Because we found significant results, we conducted post hoc tests in order to compare each of our suggestion conditions to one other. These post hoc tests indicated significant differences ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 25 in all three conditions—positive vs. control suggestion, positive vs. negative suggestion, and control vs. negative suggestion. The mean difference between positive and control suggestion is (MD = 0.183, p = 0.0001), the mean difference between positive and negative suggestion is (MD = 0.368, p = 0.0001), and the mean difference between the control and negative suggestion is (MD = 0.185, p = 0.0001). Lastly, we examined the data for any main effects demonstrating differences in people’s ability to solve verbal versus spatial insight problem. As expected, we found no results indicating a significant difference between the two problem types, due to our piloting beforehand which ensured an approximately equal solution rate for the two types of problems F(1,114) = 0.721, p = 0.398. In addition to these main effect hypotheses, we found an interaction effect verging on significance between alcohol type and suggestion type F(2, 113) = 3.031, p = 0.052, with the strength of the overall interaction effect as indexed by partial eta squared as 0.052 (See Table 2). This means that receiving a positive suggestion benefited participants in the sham-alcohol condition almost significantly more than it benefited participants in the real alcohol condition (See Figures 1 and 2). The data shows that in regards to receiving a negative or control suggestion, those in the sham alcohol condition performed only slightly better, which likely means that these two suggestions did not contribute to the interaction between alcohol and suggestion type. In addition, we analyzed the data for any within-subjects interaction effects to see if alcohol or suggestion type had any effect on people’s ability to solve spatial insight problems versus verbal insight problems. We found no evidence to support that either receiving sham versus real alcohol, or receiving a positive, negative, or control suggestion has any ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 26 significant effect on people’s ability to solve verbal versus spatial insight problems (See Table 2). Discussion The present study examined whether type of suggestion—positive, negative, or control—and type of alcohol—sham versus real—would have an effect on people’s ability to solve creative insight problems. It also examined whether alcohol or suggestion type would have a significant effect on people’s ability to solve spatial compared to verbal insight problems. We found support for our first main effect hypothesis which stated that participants who received a sham-alcohol beverage—individuals who believed they were consuming alcohol, but were in fact received a non-alcoholic beverage—would outperform participants who received an alcoholic beverage on the creative insight problem solving task. Analysis also supported our second main effect hypothesis which stated that participants who received a positive suggestion would do significant better on an insight problem solving task than those who received a negative or control suggestion. Our third main effect hypothesis which stated that participants who received a negative suggestion would do significantly worse than those who received a positive or control suggestion on an insight problem solving task was also supported. Participants who received a control suggestion fell in the middle, and all three suggestion groups were significantly different from one another. In addition, no evidence was found to support our fourth main effect experimental hypothesis regarding differences in verbal versus spatial insight problem solving abilities. In addition to this, we found an interesting interaction effect that is verging on significance between alcohol type and suggestion type. Overall, participants who received the sham alcoholic beverage did better than those ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 27 who received the real alcoholic drink, regardless of the suggestion, however participants in the sham alcohol condition benefited significantly more from a positive suggestion than did participants in the alcohol condition. Though the interaction effect was verging on significance with a p value of 0.052, we believe that with a slightly larger sample size, our p value could be at a significant level. Our findings on the effectiveness of a suggestion to influence people’s insight problem solving abilities fits well with the findings of Staats, Hekmat, & Staats (1998) in their ice water submersion study. This study demonstrated peoples increased ability to hold their hands under water for longer periods of time when told it would benefit them, and shorter periods of time when told it could hurt them. Our study replicates these positive and negative suggestion results that strongly indicate that an expectation or suggestion of how a substance will affect an individual does in fact make a difference. Our results expand the literature on the effectiveness of suggestions, showing that positive and negative suggestions can influence a breadth of cognitive processes. Our results that show consuming a sham alcoholic beverage is better for performance on our insight problems solving task than is consuming a real alcoholic beverage fits well with some results from previous experiments, and has some interesting implications. These results emulate those of Hicks, Friedman, McCarthy & Pederson (2011) which demonstrated that both behavioral and cognitive changes can be generated by primes and stimuli related to alcohol, even when no alcohol is actually present. Essentially, both this study and our own show the prominence and the importance of the psychological and expectancy effects of alcohol on creative problem solving abilities. The fact that participants who only believed they were consuming alcohol—those in the ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 28 sham alcohol group—were experiencing none of the hindering physiological effects of the substance and many of the beneficial psychological and expectancy effects, was likely the reason they performed better than participants who received the actual alcohol. These results indicate that the physiological effects of alcohol may actually hinder people’s problem solving abilities, and it is really only the expectation effects that lead artists and other individuals to believe that alcohol is facilitating their insight and creative abilities. In addition, the interaction effect that is verging on significance points to some interesting questions. Why is it that participants in the sham alcohol condition benefit so much more than participants in the real alcohol condition from a positive suggestion? This could perhaps be because of the cultural assumption that alcohol engages peoples creative processes, therefore when people are presented with the information that alcohol will help their creative insight problem solving abilities (a positive suggestion) it has a stronger effect than when they are told it will do nothing or hinder their creative abilities. Therefore being presented with an expectation they were already holding, along with getting to experience the psychological and expectancy effects of consuming alcohol without any of the physiological depressive and cognitive impairments, boosted their performance significantly. Lastly, we will examine our results on problem type—verbal versus spatial insight problems. We found no significant main effect differences in people’s ability to solve spatial versus verbal insight problems in any of our six conditions, nor did we find any interaction effects between problem type, and suggestion type or alcohol type. No previous research had been done regarding this question, and therefore we had no ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 29 predictions on how alcohol and/or suggestion type would affect performance on spatial versus verbal insight problems. Because no evidence was found to support any variation in spatial versus verbal problem solving abilities, we can so far conclude that individuals solve the two types of problems at a similar rate regardless of type of alcohol or type of suggestion. We fortunately found no main effect differences between the spatial and verbal insight problems. Because we piloted for spatial and verbal insight problems to have as close to the same solution rates as possible, not finding any main effects of problem type contributed to the validity of the experiment overall. It is also important to make note of the effect sizes we found in this experiment. We measured effect size using partial eta squared—a biased measure. Partial eta squared is more likely to overestimate effect size than it is underestimate it, meaning that the fairly small effect sizes reported in this experiment could potentially be even smaller (Levine and Hullett, 2002). It is clear that the suggestion type manipulation accounts for much of the variation in the data with an effect size of 0.583, however the effect size for alcohol type was quite small at 0.061, and the effect size for the between subjects interaction was even smaller at only 0.052. As we will discuss further in the limitations, these very small effect sizes could be due to the small number of participants in each group, and an increase in number of participants and therefore effect size could give this experiment significantly more power. Our study was limited in a few ways, the first of which was our relatively small sample size per condition. Because our data showed that we had either significant or very close to significant results for our between subjects effects, small effect sizes, and low power, adding several participants to each group could have been very beneficial. ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 30 Although we had 116 participants total, we had only 18-20 individuals in each condition. With a larger sample size, we likely could have obtained a fully significant interaction effect, and our other main effects would have been more powerful. For example, the power of our between subjects interaction effect of alcohol and suggestion type was only 0.576, meaning we had a 0.424 chance of making a type 2 error (where 1 minus power is the chance of making a type 2 error). With more participants and therefore more power, the risk of making this error would drop significantly and our marginally significant results would likely become significant. Our study was also limited in our ability to accurately control the blood alcohol levels of participants in the alcohol conditions. We consulted a chart based on each participants gender and weight, however we were unable to control how much that person had eaten that day, if they were dehydrated, and how their individual body processes alcohol. We told participants to eat something at least a few hours before the study, to not consume alcohol at least 24 hours before the study, and to remember to drink water. We breathalyzed participants on their way in to make sure they were not already intoxicated, but we were unable to control how nourished or hydrated they were. In addition, it is possible that any medications participants were taking at the time could also have an effect on how their body process alcohol. Because of this lack of control, there were a few participants who blew as low as a 0.03 BAC, and some as high as a 0.08 BAC. Most participants though stayed in the 0.05-0.06 range, which was our target blood alcohol range. Another way in which our study was limited was the fact that participants were tested in groups of 10, which could have created social facilitation or social inhibition ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 31 effects. It is possible that participants were influenced in either positive or negative ways by the individuals around them, meaning that our results may have been different had we tested participants one at a time in a room by themselves. Robert Zajonc’s theory of social facilitation states that when individuals are engaging in an easy task, the presence of other people helps their performance, whereas when individuals are engaging in a new or difficult task, the presence of other people can hinder their performance. Because these insight problems were fairly difficult for most people, the fact that they were surrounded by others could have caused them to perform worse on this task in comparison to if they had been tested one at a time. Despite these limitations, our study points towards some important and promising conclusions. Showing that the consumption of alcohol is not actually necessary to experience the psychological and expectancy effects associated with the substance, and that those who consumed alcohol actually did worse on a measure of creativity, could be a step towards diminishing the overconsumption of psychoactive substances that individuals believe facilitate their creative abilities. This study is also another interesting piece in a growing body of work involving placebo (positive suggestion) and nocebo (negative suggestion) effects in psychology. The placebo effect and effects of positive suggestion have been studied extensively in the medical community, however in the psychological community they have not been as widely examined. The effect of negative suggestion specifically has not been studied extensively at all in either field, and our study demonstrates the power of a negative suggestion as it relates to how alcohol will affect a persons creative insight problem solving abilities. In addition, the power of suggestion can also be related to the real world ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 32 idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy—the phenomena when an individual believes something about himself or about another person, and then unconsciously behaves in ways to make that belief come true. For example, when a teacher knows that a particular young student is not very bright, that teacher may “give up” on the student by withholding help, or grading assignments down because of their prior beliefs. This teacher is behaving in a way that continues to fulfill what he or she already knows about a student. Of course, this phenomena can go in the other direction as well, where a student gets more help and does better when a teacher believes he will succeed. This study can potentially help enlighten individuals and even educators about the power of suggestion in these self-fulfilling prophecies, and hopefully work to increase the positive cases, and decrease the negative ones. The present study extends the breadth of suggestion literature into the realm of cognition, problem solving, creativity, insight, and potentially even education. Further research on this topic could include the addition of six more conditions that mimic the current study. However instead of having a real alcohol condition in which participants know they are drinking, and a sham alcohol condition in which participants believe they are drinking but in fact are not, there should be two different alcohol conditions. There would be a condition in which people are given alcohol without the expectation of receiving any, and a condition where participants are not given alcohol, and they are aware they will not be receiving any. This would allow for a more in-depth examination of the importance of the psychological versus physiological effects of alcohol on creative insight problem solving. If for example, participants who were given alcohol and did not expect it performed poorly on the insight problem-solving task, this ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 33 would be further evidence to support the importance of the expectation and psychological effects of alcohol on creative abilities. There are wide bodies of literature examining the effects of alcohol on creativity and insight, as well as looking at the power of suggestion on individual’s assessments of his or her own physical and psychological states. To date however, there are no other experiments that study the combination of factors like the present study. Our study looks simultaneously at the effects suggestion can have on individuals who have either actually consumed alcohol or who simply believe they have consumed alcohol, and on their abilities to solve verbal and spatial creative insight problems. This unique combination of distinct bodies of research makes for an interesting and useful study that will likely add complexity to the studies of alcohol, creativity, suggestion and insight, and help individuals to recognize the power of suggestion and expectancy on their own cognitive abilities in daily life. ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 34 References Assefi, S., & Garry, M. (2003). Absolut memory distortions: Alcohol suggestions influence the misinformation effect. Psychological Science, 14(1), 77-88. Bootzin, R. R., & Bailey, E.T. (2005). Understanding placebo, nocebo, and iatrogenic treatment effects. 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Positive Suggestion Dialogue For many years, creativity has been linked to the consumption of alcohol. Many musicians and artists have claimed that drinking opened up their minds, and that the majority of their creative works were fashioned under the influence of alcohol. It has been found through several psychological experiments that at certain volumes, alcohol is a known facilitator of creativity and creative problem solving. Small to moderate amounts of alcohol are associated with lowered inhibitions, and allow for individuals to come up with thoughts and ideas that may not have occurred to them without the consumption of an alcoholic beverage. At certain blood alcohol levels, the body and mind tend to be subconsciously open to new possibilities, and people are able to “think outside the box” more effectively and rapidly. 2. Control Suggestion Dialogue Although at certain doses, alcohol has been shown to have an effect on a persons motor, physical and cognitive abilities, there has been no evidence of its effect on people’s ability to think and solve problems in a creative manner. 3. Negative Suggestion Dialogue When consumed in certain quantities, alcohol has been shown to have a debilitating effect on an individuals creative thought process. Due to the fact that alcohol has the power to reduce inhibitions and increase confidence, many think it to be intuitive that alcohol would foster “out-of-the-box” thinking. However, the actual effects of alcohol have been shown to diminish overall cognitive functioning, as well as creative problem solving abilities. This impairment is reflected in our compromised decision-making abilities when inebriated, which emerge from our mind’s relative inability to process information as effectively as compared to when we are sober. ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION Appendix B 1. Show how you can make the triangle below point downward by moving only three circles. Be sure to indicate the numbers of the circles that you would move. A: 41 ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 42 2. Draw four continuous straight lines, connecting all the dots without lifting your pencil from the paper. A: 3. A woman has four pieces of chain. Each piece is made up of three links. She wants to join the pieces into a single closed ring of chain. To open a link costs 2 cents and to close a link costs 3 cents. She only has 15 cents. How does she do it? A: Take apart all of one of the three links, and use those open links to connect the rest into a continous chain 4. Add one line to IX to make six. A: SIX 5. Six normal drinking glasses are standing in a row. The first three are full of water; the next three are empty. By handling and moving only one glass, change the arrangement ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 43 so that no full glass is next to another full glass, and no empty glass is next to another empty glass. A: Take full glass 2 and pour it into glass 5. In other words, take the middle full glass, and pour it into the empty middle glass. 6. Nine pigs are kept in a square pen. Build two more square enclosures that would put each pig in a pen by itself. A: 7. A man was looking at a portrait. Someone asked him, “Whose picture are you looking at?” The man answered, “Brothers and sisters have I none, but this man’s father is my father’s son.” Whose picture was the man looking at? A: His son 8. Water lilies double in area every 24 hours. At the beginning of the summer, there is only one water lily on the lake. It takes 60 days for the lake to become completely covered with water lilies. On which day is the lake half covered? A: Day 59 9.You have two coins which add up to thirty-five cents, yet one is not a quarter. What coins are they? A: One quarter and one dime 10. A man who lived in a small town in the United States married 20 different women of the same town. All are still living and he never divorced any of them. In this town polygamy is unlawful; yet he has broken no law. How is this possible? A: He is the Minister 11. The legendary runner Flash Fleetfoot was so fast that his friends said he could turn off the light switch and jump into bed before the room got dark. On one occasion Flash ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 44 proved he could do it. How? A: It was daytime 12. While on safari in the wild jungles of Africa, Professor White woke one morning and felt something in the back pocket of her shorts. It had a head and a tail but no legs. When White got up she could feel it move inside her pocket. White however showed little concern and went about her morning rituals. Why such a casual attitude toward the thing in her pocket? A: It is a coin ALCOHOL AND THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 45 Authors Note: For any further questions or to request more information on this study please contact any of the authors. Alyssa Nevell nevellam@whitman.edu 1-541-228-4419 Julianne Linn linnjn@whitman.edu 1-206-604-0973 Surabhi Veenapani veenaps@whitman.edu 1-206-954-5005