It might be tempting to dismiss highly situational effects as not relevant for understanding the genetics of alcoholism in humans. However, such effects may represent some of the most heritable phenotypes. For example, the maximum number of drinks in a drinking day has been shown to be a heritable alcohol consumption-based phenotype for which evidence for genetic linkage is found (Saccone et al., 2000; Saccone et al. 2005) and in a collegiate sample, close to 50% of all 21st birthday celebrants established their highest lifetime maximum drinks (until age 21) on that occasion (Rutledge et al., 2008). While birthday celebrations may not be relevant to animal models, some other drinking situations that promote high consumption (e.g., certain drinking schedules (Crabbe et al, 2009; Falk et al., 1972) could be highly translatable and can be modeled across species.
