Consumers associate different types of alcohol with distinct buzzwords, according to a new study out of the University of Evansville in Indiana. Most respondents linked “party” to tequila; “sophisticated,” “chill,” and “intellectual” to wine; and “masculine” to whiskey. The findings confirm that the longstanding connections between alcohol types and mindsets are learned behavior, not feelings based on their physiological effects.
“These findings show that alcohol can function as a ‘symbolic cue,’” writes Logan Pant, the study’s author and an assistant professor of marketing, in The Conversation. “In other words, the mindsets people associate with different drinks appear to originate from learned associations rather than from intoxication itself.”
