Alcohol Gives Men ‘Liquid Courage,’ Not ‘Beer Goggles,’ Says New Study
(Photo: ELEVATE/Unsplash)
A recently published study found that men don’t find people more physically attractive after drinking. The results suggest that “beer goggles” aren’t a thing. Rather, alcohol appears to act as “liquid courage” and makes men more likely to want to interact with people they find more attractive. The study conducted by Molly Bowdring at the Stanford Prevention Research Center used 18 pairs of male friends to experiment with the idea that alcohol affects people’s perception of attractiveness.
“Beer goggles” is the concept that people appear more attractive after a few drinks. However, the scientific link between being inebriated and physical attraction has been elusive for researchers.
Bowdring, along with her dissertation advisor Michael Sayette, published the study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs and one aspect in particular helped set it apart from previous research.
“The present study added an element of realism to the attractiveness assessment by asking participants to select four images of people they were led to believe might be paired with them in a subsequent study,” wrote Bowdring and Sayette.
The male participants ranged from 21 to 27 years of age and partook in the experiment with a male friend. The 36 men had to take a breath alcohol concentration test before and during to determine their level of intoxication. During two sessions the men were given alcoholic drinks or non-alcoholic drinks. Unfortunately for them, the men weren’t given a choice of their go-to booze, instead they were given a controlled amount of cranberry juice and vodka.
Participants didn’t appear to find people more attractive after a few drinks, but it did seem to help with social lubrication.
“As hypothesized, alcohol enhanced the likelihood of selecting to interact with the top-four most attractive targets,” said Bowdring and Sayette. “Odds of selecting the top-four attractive targets after consuming alcohol were 1.71 times that after consuming no-alcohol control beverages.”
Bowdring hopes this study will be expanded to include more diverse people and backgrounds including genders, sexual orientations, race/ethnicity and drinking history.
The idea of “beer goggles” doesn’t seem to affect someone’s vision, rather it lowers people’s inhibitions. The experiment suggested that alcohol reduces some of the fear of rejection and men are more willing to take a chance on someone more attractive after a few drinks. However, there are also higher levels of intoxication to consider which this study has yet to investigate.
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