Health

How Alcohol Affects Men and Women Differently on Dates

March 30th 2016

Alcohol is sometimes hailed as way to lubricate otherwise tense or awkward social situations.

This rings especially true in dating circles, where strangers are forced to reconcile social decorum and hormonal impulses, all while bracing for a litany of variables that can throw the date off-track.

But according to new research, alcohol could affect men and women on dates differently.

A study published in the Journal of Personal Relationships recently showed that women tended to have stronger feelings of intimacy than men after drinking on a date.

AlcoholPixabay/kaicho20 - pixabay.com

For the study, psychologists from Australian National University surveyed a small number of undergrads — expanding on previous data showing that alcohol generally increases intimacy between couples.  The research begins to delve into how boozing affects men and women differently.

"Women's own drinking positively predicted their sense of intimacy," the researchers wrote. "Men's reports showed significant effects but in the opposite direction."

In other words, alcohol made women feel more intimate, and it made men feel less intimate.

The study is far from exhaustive, however.

As Tech Insider noted, the respondents were limited to a small number of young, heterosexual Australian students, who drank different amounts and reported the results after the fact. So a larger study that encompasses a broader age range, same-sex couples, and employs a more controlled research procedure might give us a more comprehensive sense of how alcohol affects the intimacy of couples on dates.

But according to the researchers, the results were significant enough to leave us with some potentially important tips — especially for men looking for love.

"This provocative finding suggests that men may wish to limit their drinking on dates to minimize its potential disadvantageous effect on intimacy for both themselves and their partners," they concluded.

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