British researchers prove beer goggles are real

To us, beer goggles are what we really think, deep down, once we wash away fears of being made fun of for being attracted to someone our friends might disapprove of. In other words, we always were attracted to these people we might not otherwise make a move on sober, beer just gives us the go-ahead to go after them.

Most people believe some variation on that idea. However, a new study out of Britain claims it's actually all about facial structure:

By nature, humans find symmetry beautiful, but alcohol affects the part of the brain that is capable of detecting symmetry. As a result, as the blood's alcohol content increases, the brain gets confused and starts to believe that every person around has more symmetrical, aesthetically pleasant faces.

First, the researchers showed each student twenty pair of faces, one symmetrical, the other asymmetrical. They asked them to pick the prettiest face. Then, they showed them twenty individual faces, one by one, and asked them to judge if the face was symmetrical or asymmetrical.

The result showed that intoxicated students had difficulty making these choices, while sober students didn't, having a clear preference for symmetrical faces. Among the students, women were the most affected. The study doesn't explain exactly why women get more affected. [Gizmodo]

Scientists think that because men are more visually stimulated, they... sorry, we were momentarily distracted by that girl in the picture above.

Image.