Today's news: beer goggles
January 11th 2010 21:41
The study at the University of Leicester had researchers showing a group of people — half of whom were sober and half of whom had consumed varying amounts of alcohol — images of females meant to be 13, 17 or 20.
The results, reported in the British Journal of Psychology, said most overestimated the ages of the females no matter how much they had drunk.
The research had a serious side, aiming to clarify issues around men having sex with underage girls, and then using alcohol as a defence due to diminished ability to judge age. This effect of alcohol now has a name: beer goggles.
The Leicester University research, in showing that sober men overestimate the age of females just as much as inebriated men, undermines this defence.
Dr Vincent Egan, the psychologist who led the research, said, "Even at considerable levels of drunkenness, males are not disproportionately impaired in estimating the age of made-up immature female faces. The notion of 'beer goggles' is therefore irrelevant, and it might be there's a pre-existing bias rather than having any links to drink."
According to a BBC report, the idea of "beer goggles" was first identified by scientists in the early 1990s, although they called it "alcohol myopia", proving some things should be left to the marketing department. Judging by the poster below, however, the term has been around since at least the 1950s.
source: bbc.co.uk
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