Why Loud Music in Bars Increases Alcohol Consumption
When the music goes up, the beers go down.
Lowering the lights signals the real beginning of night-time fun: with dimmed lights and alcohol beginning to work its magic the business of loosening up after the day's exertions can truly begin.
But turning the music up so loud that people are forced to shout at each other doesn't have quite the same beneficial effect on social interactions. Because everyone is shouting, the bar becomes even noisier and soon people start to give up trying to communicate and focus on their drinking, meaning more trips to the bar, and more regrets in the morning.
Of course this is exactly what bar owners are hoping for. People sitting around quietly nursing their drinks for hours are no good for profits. Talkers aren't the best drinkers. At least that is the received wisdom in the industry. And this received wisdom turns out to be accurate according to field studies conducted in French bars by Professor Nicolas Guegen and colleagues.
Drink up
One study by Gueguen et al. (2004) (PDF) found that higher sound levels lead to people drinking more. In a new study published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, Gueguen et al. (2008) visited a bar in the west of France to confirm their previous finding in a naturalistic setting. Here, they observed customers' drinking habits across three Saturday nights, in two different bars in the city.
The level of the music was randomly manipulated to create the conditions of a true experiment. It was either at its usual volume of 72dB or turned up to 88dB. For comparison: 72db is like the sound of traffic on a busy street while 88db is like standing next to a lawnmower.
Sure enough when the music went up the beers went down, faster. On average bar-goers took 14.5 minutes to finish a 250ml (8 oz) glass of draught beer when the music was at its normal level. But this came down to just 11.5 minutes when the music was turned up. As a result, on average, during their time in the bar each participant ordered one more drink in the loud music condition than in the normal music condition.
The observers even measured the number of gulps taken to finish each drink - the level of the music was found to have no effect on this. So the faster drinking was as a result of more gulps rather than bigger gulps.
Drinking instead of talking?
Since the volume of the music was randomly manipulated this experiment suggests that louder music causes more drinking, but what it doesn't tell us is why. Some think that people drink instead of talking while others have argued that they drink more because the music creates greater levels of arousal, which then leads to more drinking.Evidence from a study carried out in pubs in Glasgow, Scotland by Forsyth and Cloonan (2008) does back up the idea that people do, at least partly, drink because they can't talk to each other. Perhaps further studies comparing lone drinkers with dyads and bigger groups would confirm or disprove this idea.
Whatever the real reason, or combination of reasons, this kind of study is very persuasive about the causal connection between louder music and more drinking because the experimenters have taken the time to go to a bar, set up the random experimental manipulation and then actually observe people to see what they do in a real live environment.
On top of that, from the point of the view of the participant, I think it would definitely enhance your night-out to find out that you'd been inadvertently furthering psychological science by sinking a few cold ones. Or is that just the researcher (or beer-drinker) in me coming out?
» This is part of a series on the psychology of the everyday.
[Image credits: john and Thomas Hawk]
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23 comments
"The observers even measured the number of gulps taken to finish each drink - the level of the music was found to have no effect on this. So the faster drinking was as a result of more gulps rather than bigger gulps."
Surely this shows that the music DID affect the size of gulps?
Although the idea that they would take more gulps with fit in with the hypothesis, and this may have happend, the sentence before does not show this. Any answers?
Hi vousden63, think of it like this: if louder music caused people to take bigger gulps then they would end up finishing each drink with fewer gulps (say 6 instead of 7).
The fact that this pattern was not seen (the average was 7 gulps in both conditions) and yet they were finishing their drinks faster suggests an alternative explanation: that they were gulping more frequently.
Personally it makes me drink faster so that I can leave sooner!
They were probably drinking faster to get the hell out of that noisy bar and go somewhere else.
agreed, geoff and benzyl. this is a very interesting study, but the reasons behind the more drinking still beg to asked. i know i don't really like the noisy bar scenario, but sometimes friends keep on showing up or you accidentally keep on drinkin' once it's been started.
of course, i live in a state university town. so perhaps motivations for going out in the first place are a little different than in whichever bars this study was done in france.
there's my two blurbs. great article.
That's why you can find me in the club, gettin' my drank on!
http://filthyrichmond.blogspot.com/2008/09/you-can-find-me-in-club_11.html
Loudness is a bit of an epidemic in our society. When it comes to music there is a perception that louder is better. People rarely ask for balance or clarity, just loud. As a sound engineer an independent record producer I've had a number of run ins with this issue. You can read about a couple on my blog www.studiomanifesto.ca
Here's one about about a run in with live sound engineer at a show I was promoting:
http://www.studiomanifesto.ca/WP01/the-silver-dollar-room-disaster/
And here is a one about the loudness wars of popular recorded music:
http://www.studiomanifesto.ca/WP01/welcome-to-the-land-of-loud/
Heck I love Loud music whether I am in a Bar or not. Anywhere, Loud music is nice!
Justin Dee
http://www.anonymize.us.tc
There may also be a simpler explanation at work. When the music is loud, people yell and their throats get sore. In that case, a cold drink can be soothing for a sore throat in addition to being a distraction from a loud environment.
http://scienceiscritical.com/2008/09/18/the-science-of-making-you-buy-more-beer/
Finally science has found a good use. :)
It's totally true. I'm on a detox and as i explain in this post -
http://blog.nickfield.net/?p=93 - the only crappy times that I have at bars is when I head out really late and can't talk to anyone cause it's too loud.
Wow dude. I dint know about that. It was informative for me. looking forward to drink less from next time. Atleast il try.
Only two bars? Not a very big sample for a study.
It doesn't make me drink more - it simply makes me leave the bar before ordering anything at all.
Loking at the amount of comments saying that "I wouldn't want to go to a loud bar etc. etc, if would be easy for someone to think that this sutdy iw wrong, invalid however you want to put it. Don't forget though, that those who go on internet sites about psychology and post comments is probably somewhat of a biased sample.
I think it could be that, the more drunk you get, the more you yell. So, drinking makes have a "conversation" over loud music easier.
i'd like to point out a few things here.
first, that people drink differently in different areas of the world. for example, people drink lots more in Louisiana than in the Washington.
second, only two samples? i wish you would have done more observing here.
and finally, you should have commented more about the possibilities of why, perhaps even have done a survey. for the article comes off making it appear that loud noise makes people drink more. the article offer a few explanations, but dismisses them as non-testable altogether, and so continues on without analysis. but isn't that the important part of the entire experiment? after all, it is not loud music that makes people drink more (that would be ridiculous), but the effects of having the music so damn loud. please elaborate for me.
Probably they drink more because alcohol is a CNS depressant... it helps them put up with the noise. It's the same reason one drinks faster at parties, to get to a point in which all the buzzing sounds "away" and a lot less disturbing.
I hate having to shout a joke to the next person mere inches away. My little circle of friends tend to gravitate towards louder bars and this is mainly because the women in the group prefer bigger and louder places. Some outlets have outdoor tables where I usually end up when the band starts. Eventually, the other men in the group also end up there and we have a jolly good time until the women get upset because they've been abandoned. Can any amount of research unravel this phenomenon?
Unethical Study
This study would probably not have been funded in the US. The use of involuntary human subjects -- particularly when you are manipulating their environment to their detriment -- is not an ethical scientific practice.
I was wondering why the hell the music was so loud at this one bar in San Diego. People probably gravitate to noise because they think it means a good time.
I liked this article because it was true and it appealed to the senses of all readers, although we not be particularly be experiencing some of the examples/ cases given such as alcoholism, we all as people can relate.
as a Dj my motto is. If the music is too loud your too old.