Uh oh... alcohol increases attractiveness 25%!

[xvs]

Scottish researchers have discovered that men and women who have drunk a moderate amount of alcohol find the faces of members of the opposite sex 25% more attractive than their stone-cold sober counterparts.

Eighty students from Glasgow University were shown colour photographs of 120 male and female St Andrews University students aged 18-26 and asked to rate their attractiveness on a scale between one - \"highly unattractive\" - and seven - \"highly attractive\".

Half of the student ‘viewers’ had drunk between one and four units of alcohol, equivalent to a maximum of around two pints of lager or two-and-a-half glasses of wine, while the others had drunk no alcohol at all.

Professor Barry Jones, from Glasgow University’s department of psychology, said: \" We found that the attractiveness ratings were 25% higher among the people who had had a drink.

Full article is here:

http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/print.cfm?id=906622002&referringtemplate=http% 3A%2F%

[EXIT63]

Hence the term, \"Beer Goggles\".

[Watcher]

Hence the best social lubricant is alcohol \"lol\" beer googles sounds about right. It realises inhibititions and decreases conscious control. Sight gets blurred no wonder people drink alcohol to get laid. Women just cant have sex with a man without alcohol otherwise the body and hormones just dont allow it to happen. Well add pheromones and things get interesting.

[jvkohl]

Interesting observation Watcher, one that is somewhat supported by the literature:

Alcohol Alcohol 2002 Mar-Apr;37(2):169-73
Effects of acute alcohol intoxication on pituitary-gonadal axis hormones,
pituitary-adrenal axis hormones, beta-endorphin and prolactin in human
adults of both sexes.
Frias J, Torres JM, Miranda MT, Ruiz E, Ortega E.

\",... a decrease in luteinizing hormone levels only in men, an increase in
dehydroepiandrosterone-sulphate (DHEAS) and a contradictory behaviour of testosterone
according to gender, with increased plasma testosterone in women and a decrease in men.

Speculatively, an increase in luteinzing hormone levels in women (as occurs in response to pheromones
from men) could prompt the increase in testosterone. Thus, the combination of alcohol and pheromones
could --as you said-- make things interesting from a pheromonal, hormonal and behavioral perspective.

I went looking on Medline for the above after finding an article years ago that offerred a link between
the sense of smell and alcoholism.

Meyer, Roger E. (1990) Ethanol beverage anticipation: Effects on plasma testosterone and luteinizing hormone levels-A pilot study*. Journals of Studies on Alcohol, 51, 4, 350-355.
SNIFFING ALCOHOL INCREASES LH. UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS--ALCOHOL CAUSES UNCONDITIONED POSITIVE RESPONSE THAT IS REINFORCING. SKIN CONDUCTANCE AND HEART RATE CORRELATE IN ALCOHOLIC WITHDRAWAL CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL DECREASES T, CHRONIC CONSUMPTION REDUCES LH AND GnRH COMPARED TO T. ALCOHOLICS CAN ALMOST SMELL A BEER. REINFORCEMENT OF BEHAVIOR THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULI CAUSES INCENTIVE DRUG EFFECT.

It appears that sniffing a beer increases LH, which would probably first increase testosterone--making for a somewhat cocky individual--at least until his drinking ethanol caught up with him, increasing metabolic
clearance of testosterone, making him less likely to be able to \"get it up.\" Probably best to be intoxicated
by the scent of one\'s potential lover and forgoe the problematic increased testosterone clearance.

Not altogether serious about this, but it is an interesting connection,