Beauty in the eye of the beer holder

A pint of plain is your only man and a pint or two in a man can alter his perception of plain.

Or, as the line from the C&W ballad goes: “I never went to bed with an ugly woman, but I sure woke up with some.”

Alcohol, as well as increasing desire and diminishing capacity, has been found to make the normally less attractive, well, more so.

Studies have found that a pint and a half of beer can produce the effect in drinkers of both sexes – and in men the so-called ‘beer goggle effect’ can last 24 hours.

In a recent study, volunteers were randomly allocated a vodka and lime or a similar tasting non-alcoholic drink.

About half an hour later, both groups were asked to rate the attractiveness of 20 male and 20 female faces on a seven-point scale.

Those who had been drinking alcohol scored faces about 10% higher than the non-drinkers.

When the groups were tested again the next day, the men who had drunk alcohol still gave pictures of women higher ratings than those who had not.

Dr Marcus Munafo, an experimental psychologist who led the study at Bristol University, said: “The findings are important because of the role drink plays in, for example, unsafe sex.”

It is thought alcohol stimulates the striatum, an area of the brain important in attraction.