Shyness, alcohol expectancies, and alcohol use: Discovery of a suppressor effect

Despite anecdotal evidence that shyness is associated with alcohol use, studies have failed to show a reliable relation between these variables. The present study tested the hypothesis that expectancies about alcohol's positive consequences in social evaluative situations moderate the relation between shyness and drinking. In hierarchical regression analyses, peer influence, shyness, and alcohol expectancies made significant contributions to predicting alcohol use, but the shyness by alcohol expectancy interaction did not increase prediction of drinking. Also, it was found that alcohol expectancies operated as a suppressor variable. Although the simple correlation between shyness and alcohol use was near zero, inclusion of expectancies in the regression removed irrelevant variance in shyness leading to a significant, inverse relation between shyness and drinking. Results are discussed relative to how shyness problems may relate to minimal drinking activity and how alcohol expectancy findings are consistent with recent tests of the alcohol expectancy model.