It was bound to happen: research about the truth behind beer goggles.
At the University of London, researchers headed out to the university’s bars with a laptop to conduct the survey. Each participant was given a breathalyzer to be distinguished as “sober” or “intoxicated” then given the survey.
The Survey: was a compilation of 20 images of a pair of faces: 1 symmetrical (even), the other asymmetrical (not completely even), and 20 images of individual faces were shown 1 at a time to 64 student participants. The participants were asked to state which face of each of the pairs was most symmetrical, and then determine whether each of the single faces shown was symmetrical.
The Results: Sober people can distinguish symmetrical faces better than drunk people (not surprisingly). The more interesting fact of the matter was that the data suggest men were less prone to losing their symmetrical-detecting ability than intoxicated women. Probably since men are more visually oriented than women. Guys tend to “ogle” more than women.
SOOOOOO alcohol ultimately hurts our ability to detect asymmetrical (absence of symmetry) faces. Thus the term ‘beer goggles’ when thinking someone looks attractive when you are intoxicated and cant distinguish symmetrical from asymmetrical.
Photography + Science = Chanel 