Are We More Honest When We're Drunk?

"In vino veritas" [In wine, there is truth] —Pliny the Elder (AD 24-79)

Recently, a white Alabama man was sentenced to more than a year in prison after he left threatening voicemails for two Georgia officials, both of them black, who are investigating and prosecuting former President Donald Trump for possible election crimes. The man left phone messages with racist and expletive-filled threatening language. At the sentencing hearing, three of the man’s friends and his 19-year-old son told the judge that the defendant is a good man and that those phone calls don't reflect the man they know. The defendant said that he had been drinking and didn't remember leaving the messages. He claimed that he is not racist. So when was he telling the truth: while he was drunk or when he was in the courtroom?

How does alcohol affect the brain?

Alcohol has four known actions in the brain: It reduces the release of the neurotransmitter glutamate in brain areas like the hippocampus; this leads to memory blackouts that occur for events that take place during intoxication. Alcohol induces the release of both endogenous opiates (endorphins) and dopamine to produce euphoria that people desire. Finally, and most relevant for this discussion, alcohol enhances the inhibitory actions of the neurotransmitter GABA leading to sedation, anxiety reduction, incoordination, and impaired judgement. Because the frontal lobes and neocortex in general have the highest concentration of GABA receptors, the actions of alcohol essentially turn off higher cortical functions.

When the frontal lobes are slightly inactivated by alcohol, people become talkative and uninhibited and display what psychologists call “punished behaviors.” Punished behaviors are usually inhibited by the frontal lobes because these behaviors are normally shunned in normal circumstances. Punished behaviors include becoming verbally or physically combative, being unnecessarily rude, unkind, or boisterous, and speaking without any attempt to filter the content. We all display punished behaviors when we are young, but as the neocortex matures, and because of warnings from our parents, the police, the clergy, or polite society, we learn to inhibit them. By inhibiting the frontal cortex, punished behaviors are released from inhibition.

Does that all mean that alcohol makes people more honest?

Alcohol does make us more talkative, and our random thoughts are then spoken out loud without the usual filtration afforded by the frontal lobes. These words might reveal what a person truly believes, but it’s often hard to know. Alcohol often encourages people to express long-repressed sorrows or grievances that are real and usually unspoken. Under the influence of alcohol, it's common to say things we wouldn't normally express, whether they are long-buried fears, prejudices, or simply confused ideas. However, many key aspects of our personalities remain unaffected by alcohol; for example, people do not change their religious beliefs, they do not change their political party affiliation, and they do not become better liars. Therefore, listen to people when they are drunk, they are probably revealing their true selves.

Alcohol effectively lowers social restraints, enabling the expression of words and behaviors that would usually be inhibited when we are sober. It is unlikely that alcohol encourages honesty; rather, it facilitates the leakage of reckless statements and usually inhibited thoughts and behaviors that are often regretted once sobriety returns. For most of us, we simply hope that those regrets do not have to be detailed in a court of law.

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