Why Do We Find People More Attractive When We Drink Alcohol?
It is common to notice how, after a night accompanied by a person you met at a party, you realize that you feel much less attracted when seeing them in broad daylight. A possible explanation for this phenomenon could be due to this same absence of light, which certainly hides some imperfections.
But the number one responsible for this effect is well known: the alcohol The more alcohol we consume, The more attractive we tend to perceive the people around us especially if our romantic-affective predisposition is high.
Indeed, there is an effect popularly known as “beer glasses” which increases libido and eliminates social inhibitions, causing us to have a greater predisposition to make contact with people who would not attract us in a state of sobriety.
Alcohol conditions your perception
Science explains why attraction to other people increases when we have had a few drinks. Research by the universities of Glasgow and Saint Andrews revealed that Both women and men found the faces of the opposite sex 25% more attractive compared to subjects who did not try alcohol.
Another study carried out at Bristol University pointed in the same direction: research participants reported the attractiveness of other people as 10% greater 15 after having ingested 70 centiliters of beer (an amount equivalent to three beers). It was also found that the sex of the other person did not influence the increase in perceived attractiveness: men considered other men to be more attractive, and women considered other women to be more attractive, regardless of the sexual preferences of each participant.
Experts say that alcohol consumption disrupts our perception of other people’s attractiveness because alters our ability to perceive asymmetry in other people’s faces and bodies Usually, and without going into other cultural conditions on beauty, one of the foundations of physical attractiveness is bilateral symmetry.
Another research from Roehampton University in London pointed out that alcohol inhibits our visual perception of asymmetries in other people. This reinforces the idea that alcohol acts as a symmetrizer, and therefore makes the people we see in a state of intoxication more attractive.
Alcohol makes others more attractive… but also oneself
Some more notes: scientists from the Pierre Mendes-France Université in Paris pointed out that the “beer glasses” effect works bidirectionally; in both ways: Alcohol not only improves our perception of the attractiveness of others, but it also makes us feel more attractive ourselves
In this research, the experiment consisted of evaluate self-perception of attractiveness of several participants who drank alcohol, compared to the control group that was administered a drink that emulated alcohol, but did not actually contain it. Those who actually drank alcohol reported higher levels of perceived attractiveness compared to those who did not drink.
The conclusion of the matter seems obvious: it will be easier to establish a relationship with someone who has consumed alcohol than with someone who is sober, not only because of the disinhibition that alcohol causes but also because of the tendency to symmetrize faces, and therefore perceive them as more attractive than they really are.
