know - drinking a single glass of beer can make people more sociable.
The team from University Hospital in Basel tested 60 healthy people,
with an equal number of men and women drinking alcoholic and
non-alcoholic beer.
They took part in a range of tasks, including a face recognition test,
empathy test and sexual arousal test.
The lead researcher said there had been little previous research in this area.
Prof Matthias Liechti explained: "Although many people drink beer and
know its effects through personal experience there is surprisingly
little scientific data on its effects on the processing of emotional
social information."
The desire to be with others, in a happy, talkative and open
environment increased in the group which drank the alcoholic beer and
was more marked in women and those with higher initial inhibitions.
As well as enabling the participants to recognise happy faces more
quickly, the beer also enhanced participants' emotional empathy,
particularly in those with lower levels of initial empathy.
Participants were also shown pictures of explicit sexual content.
After drinking non-alcoholic beer, participants rated them as less
pleasant than neutral pictures - but they were rated as more pleasant
by those who drank alcoholic beer. This was most marked in the women
participants, but researches found it did not actually enhance sexual
arousal.
©BBC
