Contextual factors such as where African Americans drink, what type of alcohol they drink and their experiences while they are drinking need to be further examined, in part with respect to how they influence African Americans’ responses to alcohol. This research would be informative both through laboratory and field studies. The field studies could be particularly useful to test implications of the heightened responsivity to alcohol experienced by some African Americans: perhaps heightened responsivity implies faster learning about alcohol’s effects, such that during the earliest exposure to alcohol African American children will form stronger expectancy-drinking relationships than European American children. If that does occur, is it the case that conservative African American cultural norms work against such early expectancy formation to mitigate risk?
