Drinking Culture: A Personal Choice or a Social Construct?

Across much of the world, alcohol is more than a drink — it is a ritual, a signal of belonging, a lubricant for social life. In 2025, The police launched a campaign to test drivers’ blood-alcohol levels ahead of the New Year, the move reignited a familiar debate: can stricter laws truly reshape drinking behavior, or is alcohol use too deeply rooted in cultural and social norms to be governed by legislation alone?

Around the world, societies have long struggled to balance alcohol’s role as both a social glue and a public health hazard. To understand why alcohol consumption persists despite well-known risks, one must look not only at individual choices but also at the powerful web of cultural, religious, and economic forces that make drinking a shared social act rather than a private habit.

From Individual Choice to Collective Meaning

In 1897, French sociologist Émile Durkheim proposed a revolutionary idea: even the most personal acts, such as suicide, have social causes. He found that alcohol consumption correlated with broader patterns of social integration and regulation — suggesting that drinking, too, is inseparable from its social environment. A century later, his insight remains profoundly relevant.

Modern sociology views drinking behavior as a mirror of the society that shapes it. Whether alcohol is celebrated, tolerated, or condemned depends largely on cultural norms and religious values. This explains why per capita alcohol consumption in Islamic and Buddhist countries remains among the lowest globally, while wine-producing regions in Europe consider drinking an integral part of daily life.

In countries influenced by Confucian traditions, drinking has long been intertwined with social and moral expectations. “No wine, no celebration,” goes a popular saying. Alcohol is not simply a beverage — it symbolizes sincerity, hospitality, and connection. Refusing a drink at a wedding, a reunion, or a business meeting can easily be misread as disrespect or detachment.

Alcohol as a Cultural Currency

In much of Asia, drinking operates as a form of “cultural currency.” It facilitates business deals, seals friendships, and helps individuals navigate the often hierarchical and collectivist nature of social relations. The ritual of sharing drinks provides a socially acceptable space for emotional expression, storytelling, and even negotiation — areas where direct communication might otherwise be considered inappropriate.

This social function explains why drinking culture often resists change, even as awareness of its harms increases. Policies that target individuals, such as drink-driving laws, often fail to address the deeper issue: alcohol’s embeddedness in cultural identity and group cohesion. In essence, when drinking becomes a social expectation, abstaining can feel like exclusion.

Economic and Social Dimensions

Alcohol use also reflects broader socioeconomic realities. A 2010 study by Huckle and colleagues in New Zealand revealed a striking pattern: people with lower income and education tend to drink more heavily and to intoxication, while those with higher socioeconomic status drink more frequently but in moderation. The findings underscore that drinking habits are shaped not only by culture but also by inequality — alcohol serving alternately as escape, recreation, or marker of status.

Recent global data reinforce this complexity. According to the World Health Organization’s 2024 report, alcohol-related harm disproportionately affects low- and middle-income countries, where regulation is weaker and healthcare systems are less equipped to manage addiction and injury. In Vietnam alone, an estimated 70% of adult men drink alcohol regularly, and around 40% of traffic deaths are linked to intoxicated driving. Yet alcohol sales continue to rise, reflecting the industry’s growing economic clout and the social acceptance that accompanies it.

The Limits of Regulation

In many societies, governments have tightened alcohol laws — from Japan’s stricter public drinking bans to Thailand’s advertising curbs and Vietnam’s 0.0% blood alcohol limit for drivers. Yet enforcement remains inconsistent, and social norms often undercut legal deterrents.

Crucially, alcohol regulation tends to frame the issue as one of personal responsibility, ignoring the collective pressures that normalize drinking. Social gatherings, workplace events, and festive seasons all reinforce the message that drinking is expected. In such contexts, individuals who wish to abstain must actively resist not only peer pressure but cultural expectation — a task far more complex than avoiding a legal penalty.

Gender and Generation Shifts

In 2025, however, new social currents are emerging. Younger generations in urban Asia are beginning to challenge the culture of compulsory drinking. Influenced by global wellness trends, online communities promoting “sober curiosity,” and growing awareness of mental health, many young professionals are choosing non-alcoholic alternatives. The rise of “mocktail bars” in cities like Seoul, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh City signals a subtle but significant cultural shift: socializing without alcohol is slowly becoming acceptable.

Gender dynamics are changing too. Historically, heavy drinking was tied to masculinity — a rite of passage into adulthood or leadership. But as women’s participation in the workforce and leadership grows, the association between alcohol and status is weakening. In many workplaces, inclusive events that do not revolve around drinking are increasingly the norm.

Culture, Not Morality

Importantly, viewing alcohol consumption through a moral lens — as a failure of self-control — risks missing the point. Drinking is not simply a question of willpower; it is an expression of cultural logic. As long as societies equate alcohol with friendship, sincerity, or trust, its role will endure, even as its harms become more visible.

The challenge, therefore, is cultural transformation rather than moral correction. Public policy must not only regulate but also reframe — promoting new social meanings around celebration, connection, and respect. Campaigns that highlight “responsible enjoyment” may help, but genuine change comes when communities create inclusive alternatives to alcohol-centered interaction.

Beyond the Glass

Ultimately, alcohol is a lens through which we see ourselves — our traditions, our anxieties, our longing for connection. It tells us how communities bond, how power circulates, and how individuals navigate belonging and exclusion. The drink in the glass, in this sense, is never just personal; it is profoundly social.

Many nations confront the social and health costs of alcohol, the solution may not lie solely in more patrols or heavier fines. It lies in understanding why people drink in the first place — not just to feel pleasure or escape pain, but to participate in a shared cultural script.

To change drinking behavior, societies must first rewrite that script.

Tienmi Lee