Beer Goggles: The Science behind the Shtick

A group of scientists from the University of Bristol has published a paper on the effects of acute alcohol consumption on ratings of attractiveness of facial stimuli in the August 2008 edition of the Oxford Journal of Alcohol and Alcoholism. In layman’s terms, they were studying the phenomenon of the beer goggle effect.

While there was certainly no surprising information generated by this seemingly already self evident study, I did find it interesting to see that alcohol didn’t only increase the perception of attractiveness of the opposite sex, but also of members of the same sex regardless of sexual orientation.

Attractiveness ratings were higher in the alcohol compared to the placebo group… but there was no evidence that this differed between males and females or was selective for opposite-sex faces.

Another behavior that was observed was the fact that men tended to retain the beer goggle effect longer, but only when looking at women. I chalk this up to that fact that study was conducted on college aged males, and let’s be honest; with this group even farm animals aren’t safe after a hard night’s drinking.

Since its Friday, I have amassed a few humorous beer goggle videos posted below the fold (ribaldry warning). I do however feel obliged to be a killjoy first by pointing out that while a funny subject , the loss of inhibition and resulting actions are the cause of much misery including infidelity, STD’s, unplanned pregnancy, and sometimes just plain old fashioned shame and embarrassment. Stay safe and stay sober this weekend, now on to the videos.

Click “Read more” to see the videos…