Carina Bieber isn’t sure why she called her friend from home, but she does know one thing – she was drunk.

‘I just started jabbering and asking all sorts of questions,’ said Bieber, a sophomore public relations major. ‘I think I left a long message saying how much I missed him. He called me back the next day and was like, ‘What was up with that?’ We laughed about it, though.’

Bieber’s story is common among college students. Drunk dialing has evolved from innocent fifth-grade prank calling into a college phenomenon. Whether it’s a booty call, random joke or just plain accidental button-push, drunken calls only tend to cause dialers to receive a confused reply from their recipients the next day – whether or not they remember having made the call.

‘This falls in line with a lot of behaviors that happen when people are intoxicated,’ said Dr. Stephen Maisto, professor of psychology. ‘There are actually a variety of reasons why people might do it.’

One theory behind drunken activities states that people take such actions while intoxicated because others offer them the excuse that ‘they were drunk.’ Another states that while under the influence, a person may have the impression that he or she is more sexy, appealing or powerful than when sober, Maisto said.

‘In a group setting, people can also be compelled by the group behavior to do things they might not have otherwise done,’ he said. ‘There’s no one reason why. It’s not the drug effect, per se. It’s more likely to be social or psychological influences combined with the drug.’

‘I’m sure I have a lot of friends who have done it,’ said Ryan Wedlake, a senior information studies major, who didn’t recall having personally drunk dialed anyone. ‘They probably do it to make some sort of inside comment or lewd joke.’

Friendly pranks, early-morning booty calls from ex-lovers and confused hang-ups are all common among drunk dialers.

‘I’ve drunk dialed ex-boyfriends and my friends from home,’ said Rebecca Parker, senior magazine and political philosophy major. ‘My friends drunk dial me a lot, too. I guess I did it because it seemed appropriate at the time.’

‘My ex-girlfriend drunk dials me,’ said Doug Kellogg, a senior history major. ‘She just wanted to talk, it was nothing special. When you’re drunk, you’re like ‘Whoops, let’s get some action.”

Motives behind drunk dials vary, but calls are rarely made without a purpose.

‘If you went out that night, you were probably looking to hook up,’ Kellogg said. ‘If you come home empty-handed, why not take one more last ditch effort and call someone up?’

‘If you’re calling your friends, it’s probably because something reminded you of them,’ Parker said. ‘Ex-boyfriends can be much more messy.’

Calls seem most likely to be made because the drunken person just needs someone to talk to.

‘I’m more likely to call my friend when I’m drunk because I want to talk about random stuff or have something on my mind,’ Bieber said.

Maisto stresses that the dialer has a definite emotional connection to the person they are calling.

‘They may have real feelings for the actual target person, whether it’s hostility or sexual, whatever they are,’ he said. ‘The majority of cases are probably known people. It’s not random. Most of the time, people don’t do these kinds of things for any one reason, it’s something about the factors coming together.’

However, Maisto does differentiate between this kind of calling and elementary school, ‘Simpsons’-style jokes.

‘It’s something teens have done for years, intoxicated or not,’ he said. ‘But it’s different because the target intended may have real feelings involved. I don’t see this as a prank.’

Females have more of a bad rep for drunk dialing, mainly because of the emotions that seem to come out while intoxicated.

‘I definitely think girls do it more,’ Parker said. ‘Part of the reason for drunk dialing is because you feel sentimental, and girls are more sentimental people. Men get confrontational, and women get more lovey.’

‘Girls express a lot more emotions when drunk, and usually tend to call people about them,’ Bieber said.

However, the frequency of drunken calls by girls can also be attributed to other factors.

‘Girls probably drunk dial more,’ Kellogg said. ‘It’s tough to say though, because guys get rid of a girl’s number more easily. They easily would call if they hadn’t gotten rid of the number.’

‘Girls get bored, and usually that’s when they get the courage to call the guy they like,’ said Heidi Caltabiano, a sophomore in the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Maisto had not seen any statistical evidence about drunk dialing, but assumed that the majority of the callers were probably male.

‘A lot of these kinds of things have been attributed to men,’ Maisto said.

‘I’d say guys do it more,’ Wedlake said. ‘It’s just a guess, but I think guys are more likely to joke with that kind of thing.’

Instant messaging programs have also become more popular for the purposes of intoxicated communication with a possibly sober buddy.

‘When I get drunk IMs, they’re usually the same kind of thing the person would have said on the phone,’ Caltabiano said. ‘Either that or just something stupid.’

‘My friend IMed me the other day, making up random stories just to get on my nerves,’ Bieber said.

And the popularization of cell phones has only made drunk dialing more accessible for college students.

‘It makes it easier to do it,’ Maisto said. ‘It’s like leaving a note you don’t sign. When I was in college, you had to call the person’s home. I can’t remember if it happened more than once or twice during my four years. But things like that happen now, and they happened then too.’

Published on March 1, 2004 at 12:00 pm