and the strength of such relationships (Blume, 1991, pp. 139-146). An experimental research study is proposed to investigate the association between alcohol and both physical attractiveness and sex appeal for the purpose of clarifying many of the disputed issues. In support of this proposal, a review of relevant literature is presented, together with the description of a preliminary research methodology.
Studies have attested to the presence in society of widespread beliefs that alcohol provokes and heightens sexual responsiveness (George & Norris, p. 133). The actual relationship between alcohol consumption and sexual behavior, however, is far more complex than the widespread, simplistic belief. The complexity of this relationship is the result of the psychological and physiological processes involved in responses by individuals to both alcohol and sexual stimuli. Physiologically, an inverse relationship exists between the amount of alcohol consumed and the level of physical sexual arousal. Psychologically, however, perceptions persist that associate alcohol consumption with increased sexual arousal. At issue are the social and psychological processes that are at work in the perpetuation of myth in the face of physical reality.
Perceptions are articulations of links between cultural ideas, structural arrangement, and "several things about feelings: the way we wish we felt, the way we try to feel, the way we feel, the way we show what we feel, and the way we pay attention to, label, and make sense of what we feel" (Hochschild, 1990, p. 117). Perception is "an awareness of four elements that we usually experience at the same time: (a) appraisals of a situation, (b) changes in bodily sensations, (c) the free or inhibited display of expressive gestures, and (d) a cultural label applied to specific constellations of the first three elements" (p. 117). Perception functions as a sense, and may be viewed as a component of a pers...