Cheers to Drinking Less
A new study finds that women who drink to impress might want to rethink their tactics
When it comes to impressing a potential love interest, college women may have it wrong. According to a new survey, college males aren't looking for a woman to match them drink for drink, despite females' belief that they do.
The survey of 3,616 college students at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, and the University of Washington, Seattle, found that 71 percent of women are overestimating the amount of drinks males prefer them to drink by an average of one and a half drinks.
"Although traditionally, men drink more than women, research has shown that women have steadily been drinking more and more over the last several decades," says the study's lead author, Joseph LaBrie, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Loyola Marymount University. "Our research suggests women believe men find excessive drinking sexually attractive and appealing, but it appears this is a giant misperception."
The students, ages 18 to 25, were asked questions about drinking habits. The women answered several questions: how many drinks they thought a typical college man would like his female friends to drink at an event, the maximum number of drinks they thought men would like their female friends to drink and how many drinks they thought a woman would have to consume for a guy to consider being friends with her, dating her or consider her sexually attractive. The men were asked their actual preferences.
Looking at different subgroups, researchers found that 26 percent of women thought men would be friends with a woman who drank five or more drinks, while 16 percent thought men would be sexually attracted to a woman who drank that much. Both estimates were double what males reported.
"There is a great, and risky, disconnect here between the sexes," says LaBrie. "While not all women may be drinking simply to get a guy's attention, this may help explain why more women are drinking at dangerous levels. We believe universities and other public health organizations could use this information to help curb binge drinking among young women."
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