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Ample survey research has shown that alcohol portrayals in movies affect the development of alcohol consumption in youth. Hence, there is preliminary evidence that alcohol portrayals in movies also directly influence viewers’ drinking of alcohol while watching movies. One process that might account for these direct effects is imitation. The present study therefore examined whether young people imitate actors sipping alcohol on screen. … We observed sipping behaviours of 79 young adults (ages 18–25) watching a 60-min movie clip, ‘What Happens in Vegas’, in a semi-naturalistic home setting. …
The findings showed that participants were more likely to sip in accordance with the actors’ sipping than without such a cue. Further, we found that men were more likely to imitate actors’ sipping than females and that participants tended to respond to actors’ sipping at the beginning of the movie rather than at the end.
Exposure to actors sipping alcohol in a movie seems to have an immediate impact on the drinking behaviour of viewers, via the mechanism of imitation. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/21/11)