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In this study, the effects of ethanol on honey bee social communication and behavior within the hive were studied to further investigate the usefulness of honey bees as an ethanol-abuse model. Control (1.5 M sucrose) and experimental (1.5 M sucrose, 2.5% w/v ethanol) solutions were directly administered to individual forager bees via proboscis contact with glass capillary tubes. The duration, frequency, and proportion of time spent performing social and nonsocial behaviors were the dependent variables of interest. No differences in the relative frequency or proportion of time spent performing the target behaviors were observed. However, ethanol consumption significantly decreased bouts of walking, resting, and the duration of trophallactic (i.e., food-exchange) encounters. The results of this study suggest that a low dose of ethanol is sufficient to disrupt both social and nonsocial behaviors in honey bees. In view of these results, future behavioral-genetic investigations of honey bee social behavior are encouraged. DOI 10.2466/PR0.106.3.701-717

Objective: This study examines the influence of lifetime alcohol use and drinking-in-the-event on the risk of physical assault perpetration and victimization while controlling for the effects of additional demographic and personality characteristics known to be associated with violence or alcohol use. Method: Secondary analyses were performed on data collected for the 1990 National Alcohol Survey, which included in-person interviews with 2,058 adults (58% female) residing within the 48 contiguous United States. Results: Approximately 11.5% of the sample reported having committed a physical assault, and 16.6% of the respondents reported having been the victim of a physical assault, since the age of 12 years. Gender, age, education, lifetime drinking history and an interaction between age and impulsivity were associated with physical assault perpetration. Marital status, impulsivity, and lifetime drinking history were associated with physical assault victimization. Analyses performed on the subsample of individuals reporting a physical assault indicated that drinking-in-the-event by both the perpetrator and victim was associated with men' s, and not women' s, experiences. Conclusions: The results support a strong and stable relationship between alcohol use and physical assault. Previous findings regarding men and alcohol-related aggression are supported, but the results contradict past conclusions pertaining to alcohol and women's victimization. (J. Stud. Alcohol 60: 528-536, 1999), MUCH EVIDENCE supports a strong association between alcohol and aggression. Experimental studies, for example, have shown that aggressive behavior varies with the amount of alcohol ingested (Taylor and Gammon, 1975) [...]