Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober · Gillian Tietz, MS, CPRC

E296: The Science of Why We Drink: An Overview of Drinking Motives

·18 min·1 clip

Jill reveals that placebo studies show people feel more social and confident from drinks they believe contain alcohol.

Host Jill explores the neuroscience and psychology behind why people drink, moving beyond surface excuses to examine the four drinking motives (enhancement, social, coping, conformity) and how reinforcement and alcohol expectancy create automatic drinking patterns. She explains how dopamine systems and learned beliefs shape drinking behavior, offering insights for understanding and changing problematic relationships with alcohol.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober