The drinking behavior and attitudes toward alcohol of adolescent males in natural cliques provide a substantive focus for the investigation of several hypotheses derived from balance theory. It is found that in collectivities of high mutual attraction there is a tendency toward consensus in drinking behavior; that, if such consensus is attained, group standards arise to regulate and legitimate a attitudes and behaviors related to alcohol usage; and that, if consensus is not achieved, cliques are less attractive and tend to reject the deviant members. The results support the predictive utility of balance theory in a real-life interaction situation.
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C. Norman Alexander (1964) studied this question.