Beauty increases through alcoholic haze

A NEW study has established that beauty may be in the eye of the beer holder rather than the beholder.

Scientists in Scotland say they have found proof of the so-called "beer goggles" effect, following a study involving 80 students.

The researchers wanted to measure the phenomenon by which members of the opposite sex become increasingly attractive as one consumes more alcohol.

They discovered that men and women who have drunk a moderate amount of alcohol find the faces of the opposite sex 25% more attractive than their sober counterparts.

Students at Glasgow University were shown colour photographs of 120 male and female St Andrews University students aged 18 to 26.

Participants were asked to rate their aesthetic properties on a scale of between one highly unattractive to seven highly attractive.

Half of the students had drunk up to four units of alcohol, equivalent to a maximum of around two pints of lager or two-and-a-half glasses of wine.

Professor Barry Jones, from Glasgow University's psychology department, and his fellow academic Ben Jones from St Andrews University, led the study.

Prof Jones said: "Everyone has heard of the beer goggles effect but we wanted to measure once and for all whether a moderate amount of alcohol increases the judgement of facial attractiveness. This study proves it clearly does."

The beer goggles phenomenon is caused by alcohol stimulating the part of the human brain which is used to determine facial attractiveness, the nucleus accumbens, he said.