Beer and Drinking Benefits: Alcohol Consumption Improves Shyness Among People in Social Situations, Study Says
Drinking Beer Can Have Social Benefits
A new research found that drinking beer can help shy and awkward people in social situations.
Researchers from Switzerland found that beer and drinking beer can affect how people see certain emotions like happiness. Seeing these emotions can trigger certain responses including being more empathic, able to recognize happy faces, and sexual arousal.
Beer Can Make Individuals More Social
According to researchers from the University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland, beer drinking can influence how we interact with people. In their research, they found that people are more likely to spot happy faces and have an increased desire to socialize as well, Science Daily noted.
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The effects were found to be more frequent in women than in men and especially those who consider themselves awkward or inhibited in social situations. However, the difference in men and women were most likely due to beer consumption and body mass and not their genders. Women were more willing to look at sexually-explicit images than men but it did not lead to more sexual arousal than usual.
Beer and Drinking Research
The researchers tested their theory of beer drinking on 30 men and 30 women. Each participant was randomly given beer to increase their blood level to get them just drunk enough, Health Day reported. Prior to being given the beer, the groups went through a series of tests that measured their empathy and facial recognition abilities as well as their sexual arousal. They then repeated these tests after drinking their beers.
According to former Chair of the ECNP Scientific Programme Committee, Professor Win van den Brink, the study gave scientific backing on the theory of alcohol improving shyness among those who are inhibited in social situations. Brink was not involved in the study, but he added that the study results portraying women to be more socially uninhibited with alcohol may be explained in the difference in levels of alcohol in the blood, tolerance or socio-cultural factors and not necessarily because of their gender.
Medical Daily points out that drinking beer did not increase or decrease oxytocin levels in the body. The outlet explains that this is the hormone that is linked to the feeling of being happy with others. This could mean that the effects of beer drinking and its propensity for social lubrication may affect and take place in other parts of the body.
The findings of the research were published in the journal Psychopharmacology. The results were also presented at the annual meeting of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) in Austria.
