(PS1-1) A New Mindset Toward Alcohol: Sober Curiosity

Sober curiosity is a new social movement coined by Ruby Warrington in her book “Sober Curious: The Blissful Sleep, Greater Focus, Limitless Presence, and Deeper Connection Awaiting Us All on the Other Side of Alcohol.” The sober curious community presents itself as different from other relevant sober communities such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and offering a flexible and innovative approach to reduced drinking. Sober curiosity is also distinct from temporary abstinence initiatives such as ‘Dry January’ and ‘Sober October.’ Sober curiosity, instead, represents the process of questioning one’s relationship with alcohol. The sober curious community exists primarily on social media and is gaining significant traction. Sober social media influencers play a significant role in impacting this new frame of sobriety for the individuals who follow these accounts. Little academic research has examined sober curiosity and sober curious influencers. Given the growing influence of the sober curious movement, identifying themes and core attributes of influencers with substantial followers would be valuable. The present study comprises 10 qualitative, 1-hour, semi-structured interviews with sober curious social media influencers. Individuals who identify as female with an Instagram account dedicated to promoting the sober-curious lifestyle are eligible to participate in this study. They have been recruited through Instagram’s direct messaging service. To date, the study has a 54% response rate, with all influencers who responded agreeing to an interview. Once all the data is collected, we will conduct a thematic analysis to identify patterns across all the interviews. From a phenomenological approach, we hope our results provide information about the influencers’ perspectives on sobriety, sober curiosity, and the social media community. We also hope to gain information about the differences between sober curiosity and AA. Additionally, we hope to inspire other researchers to use our direct-contact method to pursue unique populations of interest. Social media influencers exist in virtually every community of interest to psychologists. They are community leaders that have insider information about the functioning, support, and social dynamics of various communities.