High-mind wandering correlates with high risk for problematic alcohol use in China and Germany

Everyone experiences the natural ebb and flow of task-unrelated thoughts. Given how common the fluctuations in these thoughts are, surprisingly, we know very little about how they shape individuals’ responses to alcohol use. Here, we investigated if mind wandering is associated with a risk of developing problematic alcohol use. We undertook an online survey among the general population in China (N = 1123) and Germany (N = 1018) from December 2021 to February 2022 and examined the subjective experience of mind wandering and problematic alcohol use through the Mind Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). We compared mind wandering and problematic alcohol use between two countries and investigated the association between MWQ scores with AUDIT scores. We found higher scores on the MWQ and a high percentage of problematic alcohol use (i.e., AUDIT score ≥ 8) in Germany (22.5%) as compared to in China (14.5%). Higher self-reported mind wandering was associated with higher AUDIT scores. AUDIT scores were increased mostly in male, elder, and high-mind wandering people. Our findings highlight that mind wandering and problematic alcohol use enhanced in Germany as compared to in China. Our study sheds light on the relationship between mind wandering and problematic alcohol use that may help to further investigate causal effects of interventions.