Debunking the Myth: Alcohol, Attraction, and the Illusive Beer Goggles Effect
By UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
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If you believed that blurry eyes were to blame for the
“beer goggles” phenomenon, think again.
Scientists from the University of Portsmouth have tested the
popular theory that people are more likely to find someone attractive while
drunk, because their faces appear more symmetrical. The term “beer goggles” has
been used for decades to describe when a person finds themselves sexually attracted
to someone while intoxicated, but not sober.
One possible explanation for the effect is that alcohol
impairs the drinker’s ability to detect facial asymmetry, thus making potential
partners more visually appealing.
Existing research has shown that a part of what makes
people attractive to others is how well both sides of their face match. The
thinking goes, the more symmetry the better the gene pool. But when alcohol is
introduced, it’s thought a person is less likely to notice if the faces around
them are non-symmetrical.
Study on Alcohol’s Effect on Perception of Attractiveness
However, a new experiment found that while alcohol did
impair face symmetry detection, it had no influence on facial attractiveness
judgments.
Dr Alistair Harvey from the University
of Portsmouth’s Department of Psychology, said: “Alcohol is a strong
predictor of sexual behaviour, often consumed before or during dates.
“There are a range of possible reasons why alcohol
drinkers are more inclined to engage in sex, including a lack of inhibition,
heightened expectations, personality traits, and the beer goggles effect.
“Due to the limited research on this topic, we ran a
field experiment to help determine why people often experience unexpected – and
regretted – sexual escapades after having one too many.”
To gather the results, the team visited a local pub in
the Portsmouth area. 99 men and women volunteered for the study, ranging in age
from 18 to 62 years old.
They were asked to rate 18 individual faces for
attractiveness and symmetry. Each type of rating was given twice, once for
faces showing an enhanced asymmetry, and again for the same faces in their
natural form. Participants then judged which of two same-face versions (one
normal, the other perfectly symmetrized) was more attractive and, in the final
task, more symmetrical.
The study used a robust procedure, taking ratings of
individual faces in addition to the usual binary approach where participants
select the more attractive or symmetrical face in a pair.
Findings and Implications
As predicted, heavily intoxicated individuals were less
able to distinguish natural from perfectly symmetrized faces than more sober
drinkers. But the more drunk viewers did not rate the faces as being any more
attractive. As expected, both male and female participants rated natural faces
as being more attractive than the ones that were doctored to look wonky. But,
surprisingly, this bias was stronger among women.
The paper, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, says one possible
explanation to the findings could be that attractiveness depends on many
factors that simply swamp the small effects of face symmetry.
“We don’t deny the existence of a “beer goggles” effect,”
added Dr. Harvey.
“But we suspect it would be more easily detectable when
using live models for an experiment, instead of static photographs. Images
conceal a range of important visual criteria for attractiveness, including
build, body shape, height, expression, and clothing.
“Therefore, further research is needed to find the
missing piece to the puzzle.”
Reference: “Impaired face symmetry detection under
alcohol, but no ‘beer goggles’ effect” by Alistair J Harvey, Ciara White,
Kathleen Madelin and Ed Morrison, 7 December 2023, Journal of Psychopharmacology.
DOI:
10.1177/02698811231215592