The Beer Myth

Well I’m sure that this might be very distressing news for a few guys out there but I wanted to tell you about some recent findings made at the University of Vienna. Apparently, contrary to popular belief, beer goggles don’t work on girls. According to studies undertaken by Andreas Mittermair and his team, ‘alcohol makes a man seem even less attractive to a woman’. It seems that men and women, both intoxicated and sober were asked to rate pictures of the opposite sex in terms of their attractiveness and ‘without fail, drunken men rated girls several grades up the ladder’ than others who were sober. Women on the other hand graded lower whilst under the influence.

Who would’ve thought? For years, many an Australian man has believed that if he could just get enough booze into a woman, he would miraculously turn into her Prince Charming and thereby be seen as an incredibly attractive man worthy of a bit of bodice ripping or some such. Research however, which puts a downer on so many things at times, now tells us this is not so. Boys, getting your date drunk will not turn you into Tom Williams no matter how hard you try. It may just leave her seeing someone who looks a little more like Tom Jones though. Which is not necessarily the end of the world I guess unless thats not the look you were going for.

What I did notice about the article was that it didn’t say an awful lot about the other effects of alcohol on women. It didn’t talk about the impaired judgement or the loss of inhibition brought about by overindulgence. It didn’t comment on the fact that women might make decisions that are seemingly out of character or that they may later regret these decisions. The article merely mentioned that ‘it has long been known that women do not have the same obsession with looks as men and are more interested in other qualities like personality’. And the fact that being drunk makes them find men less aesthetically pleasing.

So that may sound weird coming from a girl. It may almost sound as though I am recommending alcohol as a means to seduce women, which I’m not. Partly because I really don’t think much of it as a tactic but also because as this study suggests, it doesn’t always change perceptions in the guys favour. Despite the common belief that all women are solely devoted to appearance and looks, this is not the case. They are important but so are personality and compatibility. As it has also been said, men need a place but women need a reason. So guys, if you’re looking for that reason to be because you’re one hot stud, you may be best served hitting the gym or the fashion department before you hit the bottle.