When is your pretty drunk-face at its most appealing? When will this important question ever be answered?
Oh, right now, in a new study published in the Alcohol and Alcoholism journal that measured how attractiveness changes while drinking. Researchers photographed 40 students making neutral expressions three times: sober, after one glass of wine, and after two glasses of wine.
A separate group of students (all super-sober) chose the most attractive of the photos. The judging parties selected the one-drink face as the hottest, followed by the sober face, followed by the two-glasses-of-wine-you’re-a-beautiful-mess face.
The researchers suggest a few factors could increase attractiveness after one drink: Wine can prompt pupil dilation, encourage muscle relaxation, and pump up cheek rosiness. But the senior researcher and biological psychology professor Marcus Munafò said that this control study is a tricky one, because people usually drink together. In his words:
You consume a drink, so you see other people as more attractive. But you also become more attractive yourself because you’ve consumed a drink. And exactly how that would play out in the real world, we don’t know.
Exactly how anything plays out in the real world, no one knows! Enjoy your wine!
