New research suggests ‘beer goggles’ aren’t real

To conduct the research, 18 pairs of male friends were welcomed into the laboratory.

Each of the participants was aged in their twenties. They were interviewed in pairs in order to mimic what a real social interaction while out drinking with friends would be like.

To begin, the researchers asked the pair of men to rate the attractiveness of someone they saw in photos and video clips. They did this once while they were drinking an alcoholic beverage (resulting in a legal US blood alcohol level of 0.8 percent) and again on a different day, while they were sipping on a non-alcoholic beverage.

Surprisingly, their answers revealed that being intoxicated or sober had no impact on how good-looking they found others. Then came the big question.

Once they answered with their attractiveness level rating, participants were told that they may be given the opportunity to meet someone from the photos or videos later on. They were asked to list one individual whom they most wanted to meet.

Their answers revealed that the men were 1.71x more likely to choose to meet one of their top-four attractive candidates when they were drinking compared to when they were sober.

So in the end, it seems that we may not necessarily be inclined to see everybody as better-looking when drinking. Instead, alcohol arms us with the self-confidence needed to act on our attraction.

Which, perhaps for some, isn’t such a bad thing.