Drinking,Everyday Life Situations and Cultural Norms in Denmark,Finland,and West Germany: An Experiment with Nonactive Role-Playing

Abstract

A method called nonactive role-playing, originally developed in social psychology, is applied to illustrate cultural differences with respect to drinking between Denmark, Finland and West Germany. West Germany and Denmark have clearly higher level of alcohol consumption than Finland, whereas Finland has adopted strictest alcohol control policy. In nonactive role-playing the respondents are given a brief written story for which they are asked to produce a written imagined continuation. On the surface, the material of this study seemed to repeat the stereotypical images of hedonistic Danes, heavy-drinking Finns and ritualistic Germans. Deeper, it seemed that drinking has greatest expressive power in Finland where references to drinking are more frequent and they are used effectively as social markers in the process of events described. In Denmark and Germany, drinking is more self-evident and is less remarkably used as a carrier of specific cultural meanings. The findings are of interest in considering the nature of the debate on alcohol-related issues in different cultures.