Alcohol expectancies are beliefs that individuals hold about the effects they experience from drinking. They are largely beliefs about how the consumption of alcohol will effect a person’s emotions, abilities and behaviors.

If people in a society generally believe that intoxication leads to aggression, sexual behavior, or rowdy behavior, they tend to act that way when intoxicated. If the society teaches that intoxication leads to relaxation and tranquil behavior, it virtually always leads to those outcomes. Alcohol expectancies vary within a population so outcomes are not uniform.

People tend to conform to social expectations and a common belief in most societies is that alcohol causes disinhibition. However, in those societies in which people don’t believe that alcohol disinherits, intoxication virtually never leads to unacceptable behaviors because of “disinhibition.”