Loud pop music in bars makes people drink more and down it more quickly, a study in France has shown. Researchers watched young men who had ordered a glass of beer on a Saturday evening in two unnamed bars in western France. The drinkers were unaware they were being watched by the researchers, who had programmed the sound system to select randomly either a normal level of 72 decibels or a loud level of 88dB. Nicolas Guéguen, Professor of Behavioural sciences at the Université de Bretagne-Sud, led the study. He said: "Previous research has shown that fast music can cause fast drinking, and that music versus no music can cause a person to spend more time in a bar. This is the first time that an experimental approach in a real context found the effects of loud music on alcohol consumption." The results, published online in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, show that the louder the music, the more swiftly the drinkers finished their beer, ordered more - or left.
Loud pop music in bars makes people drink more and down it more quickly, a study in France has shown.
Researchers watched young men who had ordered a glass of beer on a Saturday evening in two unnamed bars in western France. The drinkers were unaware they were being watched by the researchers, who had programmed the sound system to select randomly either a normal level of 72 decibels or a loud level of 88dB.
Nicolas Guéguen, Professor of Behavioural sciences at the Université de Bretagne-Sud, led the study. He said: "Previous research has shown that fast music can cause fast drinking, and that music versus no music can cause a person to spend more time in a bar. This is the first time that an experimental approach in a real context found the effects of loud music on alcohol consumption."
The results, published online in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, show that the louder the music, the more swiftly the drinkers finished their beer, ordered more - or left.
