Consuming alcohol certainly makes those around you appear more attractive than they actually are. The sober you wouldn’t give them a second glance, but the drunk you just cannot stop lusting after them. What is at play here? Does alcohol really lower your standards when it comes to the opposite gender?
This phenomenon, which has been studied in depth recently, is called the Beer Goggles phenomenon, and it has caught many drunk people in its trap. The question that arises is whether alcohol consumption increases your libido and lowers your inhibitions to such an extent that you find ordinary people extremely attractive, or do they look the same and the drunk version of you just doesn’t care?
Another study conducted by the St Andrews and Glasgow universities found that ‘both men and women, when drunk, find the faces of the opposite gender 25% more attractive than their sober counterparts.’ Another similar study led to students rating people’s attractiveness 10% higher in only fifteen minutes after alcohol consumption. What is even more astonishing about this study is the fact that it didn’t only account for the opposite gender. Men found other men, and women found other women more attractive when they consumed a moderate amount of alcohol, irrespective of their sexual preferences.
The latest theory unraveling the mystery behind this phenomenon is the case of bilateral symmetry. Consuming alcohol impairs a person’s ability to notice asymmetry in faces, and that is the main reason why drunk people find others more attractive than when they are sober.
Being sober naturally draws a person towards people with more symmetrical facial features, and they have the presence of mind to pick them out, whereas people under the influence, well, can’t. What is even more surprising is the fact that men were more likely to detect symmetry in faces. This could be due to the fact that men get more aroused when they look at faces with perfect symmetry and thus are able to detect facial features both consciously and unconsciously.
The Beer Goggles phenomenon apparently works both ways. It doesn’t only make the people around you more attractive, it also makes you more charming, fun, and confident to others around you–or at least that’s how a drunk person would feel.
