Scientists discover beer goggles actually exist - and it only takes a few drinks

Drinkers do end up looking at people through beer goggles and the effect kicks in after just a few drinks, scientists have discovered.

Psychologists tested 129 students, with 80 drinking and the rest staying sober.

The guinea pigs were shown pictures of male and female faces on a computer and asked to perform a simple task while trying to ignore the images.

The study found the sober students were distracted more by attractive faces, while the drinkers were far less fussy.

Dr Rebecca Monk said: “We found that, yes indeed, sober participants were distracted by attractive faces, but when we studied the intoxicated people they were equally distracted by attractive and less attractive faces.”

Prof Derek Heim said: “It’s remarkable that the participants were only mildly intoxicated.

“This suggests it doesn’t take much alcohol at all for people to ‘put on their beer goggles’.”

The psychologists at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, Lancs, tested 74 women and 55 men, asking them to identify the letter “t” on a computer as the series of faces popped up.

Their report concluded alcohol reduced the difference between the draw of attention towards attractive individuals and unattractive individuals.

Prof Heim said: “Most people have heard of the ‘beer goggles’ effect, our research adds to the body of evidence showing there is some truth to this anecdotal wisdom.”