The bigger the music, the more you drink

A study of the effect of music on drinking in bars shows that the more loud the music makes people drink more.

"Previous research has shown that fast music also makes people drink quickly and music makes people drink better," lead researcher Nicolas Gueguen said. "But this is the first time an experiment has been done in real life to understand the effect of music on alcohol consumption."

(Image: alcoholism-information)

The group secretly went to 2 bars for 3 Saturday evenings. Research subjects - 40 men aged 18 to 25 - didn't know they were being followed. With the owner's permission, the observers occasionally change the sound level in the room.

The results show that the stronger the sound, the more alcohol consumption is.

Gueguen and colleagues gave two explanations for this phenomenon. "First, according to previous studies, strong music increases excitement, makes people drink faster and calls for more cups. Second, loud music makes it difficult for people to communicate in bars, so they drink more due to being told less ".

"We need to ask bar owners to play music at a more moderate level and warn consumers that loud music can impact the amount of alcohol they consume," Gueguen said.