Self-Interest and Attitudes about Legislation Controlling Alcohol

A stratified random sample of 505 adult Indiana residents living in households with telephones was surveyed using random-digit dialing to assess their attitudes about nine specific legislative proposals to control drunk driving or underage drinking and to assess the effects of self-interest on those attitudes. A two-stage Mitofsky-Waksberg design was used in the computer-assisted telephone-interview process. There was widespread support for all nine proposals, but self-interest, related to personal vulnerability for enforcement of those measures, reduced the support of regular drinkers for drunk-driving controls compared with nondrinkers' support. Parents of children aged 18 and younger were less likely than nonparents to support imposing parental liability for the consequences of children's underage drinking.