The Drunk Utilitarian Revisited: Does Alcohol Really Increase Utilitarianism in Moral Judgment?

This article investigates the "drunk utilitarian" phenomenon, which suggests that alcohol consumption increases individuals' acceptance of harm for the greater good in moral dilemmas, a finding that conflicts with theories positing that such acceptance requires inhibitory control—an ability impaired by alcohol. Through a preregistered laboratory experiment with a large sample (N=329) and comparatively high alcohol doses, the study employed the CNI model to disentangle sensitivity to consequences, moral norms, and action preferences, alongside the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale (OUS) measuring instrumental harm (IH) and impartial beneficence (IB). Despite effective manipulation of blood alcohol levels and inclusion of placebo and control groups, the results showed no significant effect of alcohol on moral judgments across traditional trolley dilemmas, CNI parameters, or OUS dimensions. These findings challenge the reliability of the "drunk utilitarian" effect and suggest that prior correlational findings may reflect individual differences rather than causal effects of alcohol, highlighting the need for further research considering contextual factors and more nuanced measures of inhibitory control.