This book chapter (4) follows up suggestions from a previous chapter (3) by McClelland et.al. that in non-solidary societies heavy drinking is associated with conflict about personal power and alcohol provides a way of acting out impulses aimed at impacting others. Support was found for this theory using an analysis of words in folktales.

This book chapter tests new and pre-existing theories (Horton, Field, Bacon et al.) for the cause of variation in drinking across cultures. Folktale content is used to test psychological variables more directly than has been done previously. Folktale content is analyzed programmatically with an acknowledged error level of up to one-third. Results lend support to Field's 1962 theory that loose social organization facilitates drinking.