Many people don’t drink alcohol primarily for the mental effects. Rather, there is a strong status penalty to drinking non-alcoholic beverages. Most non-alcoholic beverages are strongly associated with children, at least in the afternoon (juice and milk are OK at breakfast, not at dinner). Adults can’t order them without sending an undesirable signal about their maturity.
Among the acceptable drinks, you’re left with other “acquired tastes” (coffee and tea) or drinks that often give other low status signals (water alone is cheap, soft drinks are lower-class).
Once you’ve established that it’s a status issue, the refusal to admit it is understandable, since open concern for status is generally a low-status trait. I don’t agree with all of Robin Hanson’s status explanations, but it makes sense here.
The mind-altering effects play into it as well. Even then, there are important signaling effects in play (Robin put up a post on that a bit ago). And ignoring taste totally is a mistake. Even if I might prefer a milkshake to an Irish creme, I definitely prefer an Irish creme to Everclear.
I think you’re missing a significant factor.
Many people don’t drink alcohol primarily for the mental effects. Rather, there is a strong status penalty to drinking non-alcoholic beverages. Most non-alcoholic beverages are strongly associated with children, at least in the afternoon (juice and milk are OK at breakfast, not at dinner). Adults can’t order them without sending an undesirable signal about their maturity.
Among the acceptable drinks, you’re left with other “acquired tastes” (coffee and tea) or drinks that often give other low status signals (water alone is cheap, soft drinks are lower-class).
Once you’ve established that it’s a status issue, the refusal to admit it is understandable, since open concern for status is generally a low-status trait. I don’t agree with all of Robin Hanson’s status explanations, but it makes sense here.
The mind-altering effects play into it as well. Even then, there are important signaling effects in play (Robin put up a post on that a bit ago). And ignoring taste totally is a mistake. Even if I might prefer a milkshake to an Irish creme, I definitely prefer an Irish creme to Everclear.