Beer Goggle Effect

Finally, someone has actually bothered to have gone and worked out the scientific equation behind the beer goggles effect. The Beer Goggles Effect is the terminology used to describe people who suddenly (due to the influence of some substances) find another person increasingly attractive. This famous ideology is used to reference the instances when a person finds another person sexually attractive, even when that person is by no means appealing. When this happens, that person is usually in for the shock of their lives when they wake up the morning after, in bed, with the supposingly sexy looking person.

"The beer goggles effect isn't solely dependent on how much alcohol a person consumes, there are other influencing factors at play too," said Professor Nathan Efron, Professor of Clinical Optometry at the University of Manchester. Amazingly, scientists now believe you don't even need to have had an alcoholic drink to suffer from the beer goggles effect.

"The formula shows for example, that a person with poor vision who's talking to someone in a very smoky bar will be experiencing a beer goggles effect close to someone who has consumed eight pints in a smoke-free and well-lit room."

The formula can work out a final score to measure the effect:

• A score of less than 1 means no beer goggle effect - an ugly person remains ugly.
  
• A score of 1-50 means a slight beer goggle effect - making a person you would normally find very unattractive slightly less "visually offensive".
  
• A moderate beer goggle effect is indicated by a score of between 50-100 - a person who is by no means appealing becomes suddenly sexually attractive.
  
• A score of more than 100 indicates a severe beer goggle effect - the "fugly" you were talking to an hour ago now looks like Kylie Minogue or George Clooney.

For example, someone with normal vision who has drunk five pints of beer and see someone 1.5 metres away in a fairly smoky and poorly lit room will score 55, which means that they would suffer from a moderate beer goggle effect.

Increasing beer consumption to eight pints (2.8 litres) increases that score of 140, leading to a severe beer goggle effect.

Therefore, I would say that the outcome of this scientific experiment would conclude that a person should not consume more than 5 pints of beer to be under the "legal limit" for Beer goggles effect.

Interesting thought, as I met Pete at a night club on a very smoky dance floor with poor lighting and having consumed about 6 bottles of beer (usual start to the night). So what does that say about us ? Could I be still under the beer goggle effect (from all the previous excessive drinking expeditions ?!)

gosh.. I think I should try to stop drinking for about a month and see what happens.. :)