According to Gizmodo British researchers have figured out why drinking a lot of booze can make us think people are hot, even when they’re not (at all).

So here’s what they found; human beings have an innate preference for symmetrical faces. It’s in our nature to find symmetry beautiful. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depending on how you look at it) alcohol affects the part of our brains that detects symmetry.

As your blood alcohol content increases, your brain gets all kinds of confused and causes you to see things as being balanced and aesthetically pleasing, even when they’re not. Once the alcohol goes away, so does the symmetry.

The study was conducted with a group of 64 students. The researchers showed them each twenty sets of faces – one in each set was symmetrical and the other was asymmetrical. They asked them to choose the prettiest face. Once that was complete, they showed them twenty individual faces (one at a time) and asked them to define each face as symmetrical or asymmetrical.

Then they got the students all boozed up and tried both tests again. Results show that intoxicated students had difficulty discerning which faces were symmetrical while the sober kids had a clear preference.

Even further, the study found that women are more affected by beer goggles than men. It doesn’t say exactly why but it may be because men are more "visually oriented" in the first place. As Lewis Halsey of the research team said, "Men tend to ogle more than women do." True that Lewis. True that.

Surprisingly enough, this was the first time that a study has been able to conclusively establish why alcohol consumption causes a distorted perception of other people. I can’t help but think how it effects people would be a more interesting experiment.

Image credit: Gizmodo

TAGS [ BEER GOGGLES | BEER STUDY | ALCOHOL STUDY ]