This study assesses the effectiveness of the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration's Alcohol Education Program, formerly Maryland's Alcohol Safety Action Project. In addition, this study shows how a relatively short program of alcohol education actuates a favorable change in attitude and a concomitant change in behavior among social drinkers, as compared with problem drinkers, charged with drunk driving.

Subjects were classified as social drinkers or problem drinkers, then assigned to a control group or to one of five treatment modes, consisting of various educational formats. Recidivism (post-treatment drunk driving convictions) of 3637 subjects over a two-year period formed the basic data of the study. Statistical analysis of the data disclosed that the recidivism rates of social drinkers were significantly lower than the recidivism rates of problem drinkers, suggesting alcohol education programs have differential effectiveness as a function of drinker type.

We reasoned that social drinkers involved in a drunk driving offense, unlike problem drinkers, experience high levels of cognitive dissonance. Spurred by dissonance, which intensified as the program progressed, social drinkers underwent a favorable change in attitude and a concomitant change in behavior. We reasoned further that, having assimilated their drinking pattern into their self-concept, problem drinkers experience lower levels of dissonance, too low to effectuate attitudinal or behavioral change.