Press Releases
Loud music prompts more drinking
On top of recent research that says certain types of music can increase the risk of violence in bars and clubs, a French study has shown that turning up the volume on the music can speed up the drinking at the bar. Researchers found loud music correlated with increased alcohol consumption and shortened the amount of time it took for bar patrons to empty their glasses: "Previous research had 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," says researcher Nicolas Gueguen, a professor of behavioral sciences at the Universite de Bretagne-Sud in France, adding "This is the first time that an experimental approach in a real context found the effects of loud music on alcohol consumption." and "We have shown that environmental music played in a bar is associated with an increase in drinking," Gueguen says. "We need to encourage bar owners to play music at more of a moderate level ... and make consumers aware that loud music can influence their alcohol consumption." In the study, published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, researchers observed 40 young male beer drinkers in two bars in a city in western France over the course of three Saturday evenings.With the bar owners' permission, researchers manipulated the sound levels between 72 decibels (considered typical) and 88 decibels (considered high) of the top 40 songs playing in the bar and then selected random males who ordered beer at the bar to observe. After each participant left the bar, sound levels were again manipulated and another random drinker observed. The results showed a correlation between loud music and the tendency of bar patrons to drink more and drink their beers faster.
ILMC news 20th July 2008 www.ilmc.com
