From the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau press release:<\/p>\n
\nIn a study with pandemic-related implications, researchers report that strangers who consume alcohol together may keep their distance initially — but draw physically closer as they become intoxicated<\/strong>. No previous studies have tested the effects of alcohol consumption on social distance, the researchers say. They report the new findings in the\u00a0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\nTo test how social familiarity influences drinking behavior, the researchers asked study subjects to each bring a friend who would also participate in the study. The 212 young, healthy social drinkers were assigned to different experimental conditions.<\/p>\n
“In half of the cases, participants drank with a friend,” said Catharine Fairbairn, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who led the research. “In the other half, they drank with the friend of another participant — a stranger.”<\/p>\n
The pairs were assigned to consume either alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverages.<\/p>\n
The team gave those in the experimental condition enough alcohol to bring their blood-alcohol to levels associated with intoxication. The researchers videotaped the interactions of each pair.<\/p>\n
“We measured distance between the individuals via machine-learning methods that detect hands, arms, legs and head position for each person in the video,” said study co-author Nigel Bosch, a professor of information sciences and of educational psychology at the U. of I. who developed the method. “We used a bit of geometry to turn the pixel coordinates of people detected in the video into real-world distances based on objects of known size visible in the video.”<\/p>\n
Friends tended to draw close to one another whether or not they consumed alcohol<\/strong>, Fairbairn said.<\/p>\n
“But participants interacting with a stranger only moved closer to that individual if they were intoxicated<\/strong>. The physical distance between these pairs decreased by about 1 centimeter per three-minute interval,” she said.<\/p>\n
Those who drank nonalcoholic beverages with strangers did not draw significantly closer to one another during the experiment, the team found.<\/p>\n
“This study shows that over time, alcohol reduces physical distance between people who are not previously acquainted<\/strong>,” said study lead author Laura Gurrieri, a researcher in psychology at the U. of I. “This finding is particularly important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic because it suggests that alcohol might facilitate virus transmission and impede the following of social distancing guidelines.”<\/p>\n
Fairbairn said that participants’ ability to move closer to one another was somewhat constrained as they sat across from one another at a table, and the study was conducted in a quiet, spacious laboratory and not a bar.<\/p>\n
“Folks would likely draw even closer to one another in a crowded bar with loud music when compared with our laboratory environment,” she said. “That would have to be the subject of another study.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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