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November 12, 2007
Beer Goggles
Like Matt, I'm actually surprised that being drunk causes individuals to boost their evaluation of the attractiveness of members of the opposite sex. I hadn't thought the beer goggles effect was real -- rather, I'd assumed the effect was a mixture of lowered social reserve (and thus reduced fear of social opprobrium) and higher horniness, which combined to overcome qualms you'd otherwise have about a potential partner.
In fact, I'm still not convinced the effect is real, and wouldn't be surprised to learn that it's a function of people being more interested in hooking up with each other, and thus mistaking attraction for attractiveness. Or, as an alternate hypothesis, I think it's possible that we actually underestimate how attractive people are when we're sober, and are thus more concerned about what friends/bystanders/etc will think, or are overly invested in a rigid idea of our natural dating level.
November 12, 2007 | Permalink
Comments
we actually underestimate how attractive people are when we're sober
I find this hypothesis quite amusing, and I'd like to be able to defend it. The concern is that terms like 'attractive' (and perhaps 'red' and 'surprising') are usually understood as arising from perceivers' responses under normal conditions. Being drunk is usually regarded as a departure from the normal, though I suppose that Irishmen may have different intuitions on the matter.
Posted by: Neil the Ethical Werewolf | Nov 12, 2007 10:19:23 PM
I certainly hope that being on the University of Chicago campus inspired you to touch on the "-goggles" issue. While physical inebriation may not functionally cause increased attraction, spending your late teens and early 20s toiling amongst a student body that could charitably be called "unpleasant to look at" most definitely is capable of making almost any member of the non-deformed category seem "hot."
Posted by: JStarr | Nov 12, 2007 10:24:45 PM
This blog certainly looks better when I'm shitfaced.
Posted by: yeah uh huh | Nov 12, 2007 10:24:52 PM
When you wake with someone the morning after the night before you'll find out if your theory is true since there won't be anyone else around to be "concerned about what friends/bystanders/etc will think". Depending on the outcome it starts to get interesting...
Posted by: Texican | Nov 12, 2007 11:14:32 PM
It ain't that the person gets more attractive, it's that you stop caring that s/he ain't. Your ability to be critical and/or repulsed is diminished, and it isn't surprising that this would tend to boost how you evaluate people.
And the beer "goggles" metaphor is too visual. It isn't just about physical appeal, it's just as much (if not more) about intelligence, mannerisms and use of language that you would normally not be attracted to.
After a few beers, that laugh isn't quite so annoying....
Posted by: jd | Nov 12, 2007 11:24:35 PM
I think it's possible that we actually underestimate how attractive people are when we're sober, and are thus more concerned about what friends/bystanders/etc will think, or are overly invested in a rigid idea of our natural dating level.
Oh.... dear. Oh... dear. I suppose the short reply is no, it's not possible.
But thanks for playing...
Posted by: weboy | Nov 13, 2007 12:16:54 AM
Based upon my scant memories of Saturday night, I think that alcohol interferes with whichever part of the brain compiles opinions of each separate feature into an opinion on the "whole person." In my case, I was aware she was a bit older than I preferred, had visibly crooked teeth, and that even though she was standing on a step while dancing with me, the top of her head was still below my eye level. I don't normally find any of these features very attractive. But I found her lips overwhelmingly beautiful. They were full and perfectly shaped. And that's all I cared about right then.
Posted by: anonymous | Nov 13, 2007 12:47:49 AM
In the backpacking community there is a term called trail goggles. There are times in life when your opportunities are limited. Yet, you want to have sex. These things happen.
Posted by: cheflovesbeer | Nov 13, 2007 12:58:21 AM
In the backpacking community there is a term called trail goggles. There are times in life when your opportunities are limited. Yet, you want to have sex. These things happen.
Posted by: cheflovesbeer | Nov 13, 2007 12:59:09 AM
This effect has been very thoroughly studied by scientists. Empirical data shows that the male 'ratings' for females rise with increasing alcohol levels (don't remember now if this is true for women, too). And it coincided nicely with personal observations. I'll never forget the story an old friend of mine told me after coming back from holidays in Portugal. They had a huge party, with lots of booze at the camping ground. The next morning, when he woke up, his very first thought was: "OH MY GOD, what have I done!". His next thought was to get back to his own tent as fast as possible. But he still insists his new aquaintance looked twenty years younger during that evening at the camp fire...
Ok, maybe this doesn't correlate with the experiences of above averagely attractive young males, who may get a chance with a good looking girl even before they were able to order the first beer, but it sure is what many average Joes experience regularly. A popular country band here in Germany, 'Truck Stop', even wrote a song about the phenomenum:
Das Mädchen Wird Schöner Mit Jedem Glas Bier
Nüchtern und schüchtern kam ich in die Bar
und sah eine Frau, die nach gar nichts aussah.
Weil ich nicht zu ihr ging, kam sie zu mir,
nun wird sie schöner mit jedem Glas Bier.
Ok, I'll try to translate:
The girl became cuter with every new beer
Dry and shy I came into that bar
Saw that girl who didn't look like a star
I didn't join her, she came to join me
Now every new beer enhances her beauty
:D
Posted by: Gray | Nov 13, 2007 6:17:09 AM
Gray, that actually comes across fairly well in the original German. :)
Posted by: weboy | Nov 13, 2007 9:29:42 AM
In the backpacking community there is a term called trail goggles. There are times in life when your opportunities are limited. Yet, you want to have sex. These things happen.
A similar phenomenon called Queen of the Desert occurs among the American troops in Iraq. What with the U.S. contingent being largely male, and with local women completely off-limits, even the plainest woman soldier becomes as eagerly lusted-after as a Playboy centerfold at a Star Trek convention.
Posted by: Peter | Nov 13, 2007 10:50:19 AM
Cross posted from MM's thread:
I'm not convinced. I've noticed that when I've reached the point of being slightly tipsy, I lose a bit of focus and colors become more intense; presumably this corresponds to the loss of iris control that a cop looks for when shining a flashlight in someone's face at a DWI/DUI stop. How this plays out when one is completely stone drunk, I have no idea, since I've never tried it -- what a waste of a perfectly good evening (and alcohol).
Nonetheless, most people are not outright ugly, they just have wierd visual quirks that detract from an otherwise passable appearance. As anyone who has ever tinkered with image editing can attest, most of these vanish with just a little image softening...which probably explains why visions of romance are usually accompanied by low, gentle lighting that emphasizes warm colors, doesn't expose every detail, and doesn't create sharp shadows that might hint at unrevealed details.
So while lowered inhibition and impaired judgment goes a long way towards explaining the results, I posit the goggles are a real phenomenon.
Posted by: anony-mouse | Nov 13, 2007 11:50:23 AM
Does this phenomenon explain how Fred Thompson got married?
Posted by: FS | Nov 13, 2007 12:41:09 PM
Does this phenomenon explain how Fred Thompson got married?
No, I'm $ure it wa$ $omething els$.
Posted by: Peter | Nov 13, 2007 1:24:18 PM
Did Matt actually write this nonsense?
Like Matt, I'm actually surprised that being drunk causes individuals to boost their evaluation of the attractiveness of members of the opposite sex
What it should be is that
...being drunk causes individuals to boost their evaluation of their attractiveness to members of the opposite (or same, if you are gay) sex
Posted by: raj | Nov 14, 2007 6:57:50 AM
Okay... I'm about to say some things that will likely reflect poorly on me, but since we're trying to be honest about a touchy subject, why not.
Who. The. Fuck. Cares. You got laid, after all. And sexual acts are by far the most pleasurable things in this world. You know those dudes (or chicks) who criticize you? Well, they probably didn't get laid. Every time someone harped on my for sleeping, or dating, a girl with 20 extra pounds, the person doing it was alone. Everyone who has criticized me for being with a 6, and not an 8, would have been lucky to get a 4 for themselves. At some point, it becomes clear that these people are living vicariously through you. Fuck them. As long as you are having fun, and nobody is getting hurt, then who really cares? Life is too short to worry what the wallflowers in your group think about the people you're sleeping with.
I have never slept with someone while drunk that I wouldn't have slept with while straight and under similar circumstances. There are times I would have liked better options, but you work with what you have. Hell, those people you're going home with might be settling for you too, after all. I really do hate when people pretend alcohol has the magic power to make you do something you don't want to do.
Posted by: soullite | Nov 14, 2007 4:34:14 PM
I have never slept with someone while drunk that I wouldn't have slept with while straight and under similar circumstances.
I hope "straight" is a sort of Britishism for "not drunk". Or rather, I don't, because this sentence is blindingly hilarious.
Posted by: Ryan | Nov 15, 2007 2:04:18 PM
