It’s 5:00 somewhere: exploring consumer drinking mindsets

Purpose This research aims to examine how different types of alcohol lead to various mental states that influence overall decision-making and consumer choices, especially for young consumers. It highlights how learned associations with specific kinds of alcohol consumption create distinct drinking mindsets. The study investigates how different types of alcohol impact mental states, which subsequently affect decision-making and young consumers’ choices. Design/methodology/approach The research methodology includes two quasi-qualitative pretests – an open-ended survey and a word association task conducted with student and MTurk samples – which identified links between alcohol types and mindsets. These pretests helped develop mindset measures and online experiments. Next, two controlled experiments with student and MTurk samples tested whether simply thinking about a specific type of alcohol activated different mindsets (sophisticated, party and masculine), which then affected consumer responses. Findings The findings, based on product personality theory, show that people develop associations with different types of alcohol that influence their beliefs. Wine is often associated with sophistication, tequila with partying, and whiskey with masculinity. This research offers a new perspective on alcohol in consumer behavior by emphasizing learned associations rather than intoxication. It clarifies the mixed results in existing literature about alcohol and mental states, suggests directions for future research and provides practical insights for academics, policymakers, marketers and consumers to understand alcohol-related choices better. These insights can help shape branding strategies and deepen understanding of consumer behavior. Originality/value This research advances the relatively understudied area of alcohol in consumer psychology by examining learned associations with different types of alcohol rather than focusing solely on intoxication. This is largely overlooked among young consumers, who represent a distinctly different target market. It offers new perspectives on how various alcohol types relate to mood states and provides a comprehensive overview of related outcomes. By empirically testing these mindsets through qualitative pretests and quantitative experiments, the authors provide the first systematic validation of how these associations manifest as distinct mental states, even among non-consumers or low-consumers such as young adults.