Drinking Alcohol Unlocks Men’s Creativity

Drinking booze clouds our judgment and makes us slow, right? Well, yes. Excessive drinking does exactly that, but according to a study published in Consciousness and Cognition, moderate alcohol consumption (we’ll repeat the key word again – moderate) can boost your creativity and actually make you smarter.

Drinking Games

The researchers over at the University of Illinois hired 40 social drinkers for an experiment in which they tested the effects of alcohol on various types of cognition.

Half of the test subjects were instructed to watch the animated movie “Ratatouille” while drinking vodka-cranberry cocktails (not the manliest drink out there, you’ll agree, but hey – free booze), and the amount of alcohol was just enough to give them a blood alcohol level of .075.

The other half was instructed to watch the same cartoon while being completely sober. Both groups were asked to complete a set of riddles and brain teasers before and after the film (and the alcohol), and all 40 participants got more or less the same results in their take prior to the movie.

Now this is where it gets interesting. The vodka-cranberry group did significantly better on the after-test, with the average of 3 correct answers more that the control group, while they also answered approximately 3.7 seconds faster than their non-tipsy friends. Go vodka!

How?

The researchers stated that this creativity boost is due to alcohol’s opposite effect on the RAM memory in our brains. Our working memory apparently works better when you’re a bit tipsy, and you can more easily remember one thing while you’re thinking of something else. Also, you feel free and care less about the consequences of possible false answers.

Well, there you have it. Your brain is better at multitasking when you are buzzed than when you are completely sober. We just need to learn how to stay moderately drunk and not go full-retard each and every weekend. We’ll drink to that.