Acute ethanol increases social interaction in adolescent rats (Varlinskaya et al., 2001), and produces social inhibition in adult rats (Varlinskaya and Spear, 2006). Given the increased social interaction observed in adolescent rats administered ethanol, the demonstrator-observer model has been applied to assess preference for alcohol in adolescent rodents after social interaction with a familiar alcohol-intoxicated peer (e.g. Fernandez-Vidal and Molina, 2004; Hunt, Holloway and Scordalakes, 2001). One experiment was designed to extend on the findings of Hunt and colleagues, in which they observed increased ethanol intake in adolescent rats following social interaction with a familiar alcohol-intoxicated peer (Hunt et al., 2001). The present work assessed the effects of social familiarity during social interaction on voluntary ethanol intake using a two-bottle choice test with a choice between a sweetened ethanol solution and water in male and female adolescent rats (Maldonado, Finkbeiner and Kirstein, 2008). Consistent with previous work in rodents (Hunt et al., 2001), we found adolescent males and females that socially interacted with an alcohol-intoxicated familiar peer voluntarily consumed significantly more sweetened ethanol relative to those that socially interacted with
