ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to clarify the seemingly diverse and often conflicting results of experiments on alcohol and infra-human aggression. It specifically examines the frequent claim that alcohol exerts a biphasic effect on aggression, increasing it at low doses and decreasing it at higher doses. The Siamese fighting fish and the Convict cichlid have been much used in research on alcohol and aggression. The only study on alcohol and amphibian ‘aggression’ concerns prey-catching habituation in Leopard frogs. It is included because predation has been considered as a form of aggression, although it is clearly distinct from competitive or defensive forms of attack. Studies on birds have concentrated on the long-term effects of alcohol administered acutely in relatively high doses. The bulk of animal experiments on alcohol and aggression have been carried out on rodents, especially laboratory mice and rats.
