Does Alcohol Make Others Look More Attractive to us?
The ‘Beer Goggles’ Effect: What Causes It?
Does alcohol really make others look more attractive to us
and, if so, why?
I’m usually slightly nervous reporting the Ig Nobel awards,
the annual spoof of the Nobel prizes.
The Ig Nobels are designed to highlight the kind of research
that makes people ask: “Don’t these so-called scientists have better things to
spend their time on?”
This year’s psychology prize has gone to Brad Bushman, of
Ohio State University, and others, who experimentally confirmed a sort of
reverse beer goggles effect: that we feel we are more attractive after a few
drinks (Begue et al., 2012).
My hesitancy is not just that the research seems
trivial–that’s the point of the awards–but also that it reinforces the idea
that psychology is just common sense.
But, take a closer look at the study, and you’ll see that
it’s not all common sense.
One of the findings is that, even people who were tricked
into thinking they’d had a drink when they hadn’t, also judged themselves as
more attractive.
So this is demonstrating the expectancy effect: that
sometimes drugs have the effect we expect, even when there’s little or no
active drug present (compare with: 80% of Prozac Power is Placebo).
Beer
goggles
Look a little further and you’ll find more instances of
apparently ‘common sense’ studies revealing unexpected or fascinating results.
What about the closely related ‘beer goggles’ effect? This
is more than just that drunk people take more sexual risks; it’s that after a
few drinks we actually rate other people as more attractive.
That one is pretty obvious isn’t it?
Indeed, some studies do suggest we find others more
attractive after a few beers (Jones et al., 2003).
But then, in 2012 many media outlets reported that the ‘beer
goggles’ effect had been debunked.
The study, conducted by Vincent Egan at the University of
Leicester, did indeed get the opposite finding (Egan & Cordan, 2011). On
average, across all the participants, people who’d been drinking found members
of the opposite sex less attractive. Beer seemed to be making people appear
uglier.
But the devil, as you so often find, is in the details.
In fact, the study divided people by age. And, for mature
faces (in this study it meant 20-year-olds, so not that mature), the beer
goggles effect held. It was only when looking at pictures of 10-year-olds that
alcohol intake reduced attractiveness ratings.
The study, you see, was much more concerned about under-aged
sex and whether alcohol might reduce men’s ability to judge the age of a
female.
Incidentally, the study found that even large amounts of
alcohol consumption did not affect men’s perception of age. So, it’s no excuse.
Facial
symmetry
While the beer goggles effect probably still stands, despite
reports of its demise, what we’re less sure of is how it works.
It certainly makes us less inhibited, and more likely to
take risks; but what about this increase in others’ attractivity?
A clue comes from the study of facial symmetry. People are
remarkably good at detecting quite small variations in the placement of facial
features–it’s a talent we need to tell each other apart.
Facial symmetry is also important because many, many studies
have found that it underlies what people consider attractive. More symmetry, it
turns out, is often more beautiful, perhaps because it signals better genes.
And, now, a series of studies on alcohol and facial symmetry
have found that the beer goggles effect may come about, at least partly,
because alcohol inhibits our ability to detect facial symmetry (Halsey et al.,
2012).
One study has even shown that women who drink a lot may
damage their ability to detect facial symmetry in the long-term (Oinonen &
Sterniczuk, 2012). In other words: they’re wearing permanent beer goggles.
First
laugh, then think
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why psychology, and
science in general, is so interesting. You start with an intuitive theory,
which you confirm. So far, so common sense.
But, along the way, you demonstrate things that are not
common sense (the placebo effect), and are hardly trivial (that alcohol doesn’t
affect age perceptions and that it can be neurotoxic), and you delve into the
deeper recesses of cognitive psychology (alcohol harms the perception of facial
symmetry).
The promise of the Ig Nobel awards is certainly delivered:
it’s research that, “first makes people laugh, and then makes them think“.
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