The Effects of Alcohol on Sexiness: Science Proves What You've Observed Every Friday Night For Years

Beer goggles: They may have the strongest effect when you're looking in the mirror.

Sexy and they know it (well, maybe)

French scientists conducted experiments both in a bar and in a lab to test the relationship between alcohol and being too sexy for your shirt, so sexy it hurts. First, drinkers were asked to assess their own attractiveness on a scale of one to ten. The results showed that the higher their alcohol intake (based on a breathalyzer), the higher their opinions of themselves. Fairly unsurprising, right? They don’t call it liquid courage for nothing.

However, in the second part of the experiment, 94 men were asked to taste test a new fruit cocktail, but were told half of them would be given a non-alcoholic version. (My guess is that 90 out of 94 of the men made a snide comment about the drink being "girly" but they secretly loved it.) They were asked to give a filmed message about the new brand, and then to watch their film and evaluate their own performance. Here’s where it got interesting: Those who believed they had consumed alcohol gave themselves a high assessment, and those who thought they didn’t gave themselves a low assessment….even if they were incorrect about whether or not they’d in fact had alcohol. So basically, just thinking that you've had booze makes you have a better opinion of yourself--no actual alcohol intake necessary.

As for what other people think about the cocky, possibly drunk dudes, a panel of independent judges also watched the film presentations and rated the men who thought they were hot stuff as actually being less attractive. This is similar to seeing your friend's pictures from last Saturday night when you were doing those totally sexy dance moves at the bar only to realize OMG I looked like that?!?! Ahem.

These experiments were largely conducted on men, but if I had to guess, I'd say the effects on women would be similar. Just in case though, we Smitten bloggers have conducted our own experiments on the ways alcohol affects the ladies. We concluded that it may cause you to ruin a romantic evening and/or reference Legend of Zelda during sex. Whoops.

Do you feel better about yourself after a potent potable? Are drunk guys actually a major turn off? What stupid things does too much alcohol cause you guys to do?

More boozy articles:
*The DOs and DON'Ts of Drunk Sex
*Dating Poll: On Average, How Many Alcoholic Drinks Do You Have On a Single Date?
*Drinks Decoded: What Your Favorite Bloggers' Drinks Have to Say About Them...If Anything!