Here’s something to consider on a date before you go to the bar for that second hurricane. A new study suggests that people are more attractive after one drink, but not after two. In fact, you may actually be back-stepping after two, meaning you looked better when you were sober. Look better, not necessarily feel better.
In the study, published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, 40 participants were photographed three times — sober, after one glass of wine, and after two glasses of wine.
Then their photos were shown to a new group of people who were asked to rate the attractiveness in side-by-side comparisons. They were either shown the sober photo and the one-drink shot, or the sober photo and the two-drink shot.
The one-drink photos performed better than the sober photos, and there are a few ideas why that might be. It could be pupil dilation, which has a positive connotation to viewers, muscle relaxation, rosier cheeks, who knows.
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But what they do know is that the two-drink photos were found less attractive than the sober ones.
“It suggests that, if it’s true, people are rated as more attractive once they’ve consumed a small amount of alcohol,” said the study’s senior researcher, Marcus Munafò, a professor of biological psychology at the University of Bristol. “But if they go on to consume more alcohol, they’re no longer rated as more attractive.”
“That obviously doesn’t mean that alcohol is healthy,” he added.
This information might come in handy on an intimate date, but as far as the gay bar scene goes it’s all a bit of a wash.
Who has only one drink? Three seems like a minimum, and if everyone drinks enough, the whole crowd starts to look more attractive.
Especially at last call.
h/t LiveScience
whoadere
I swore the saying was referring to how your partner would look after putting on your beer goggles but hey, I could be wrong
Alan down in Florida
So it’s not true that the guys all get prettier at closing time?
Billy Budd
I had a straight friend who went into “desperate mode” at closing time, and would grab the ugliest women in the nighclub. He simply did not accept going home alone.
Captain Obvious
Considering alcohol makes you become more of who you really are by lowering your inhibitions I’d say it’s not that it makes people more attractive but it makes people stop feeling so full of themselves.
People who think in terms of leagues and rating based on looks probably drop all that with some alcohol in their system.
I’d say most people aren’t quite that pretentious so this doesn’t factor too heavily one way or the other. …Though I did have two people I didn’t find remotely attractive verbally rating me out loud once. It was an interesting experience in douchebaggery. I still don’t think enough people are like this to make it a big deal.