1. ddobbs
  2. Why Bars Are So Loud

Why Bars Are So Loud

By ddobbs on September 19, 2008.

Direct from Mind Hacks: Loud Music Makes You Drink More:

PsyBlog has a delightful article discussing whether louder music increases alcohol consumption. It turns out it does, and surprisingly, there seems to have been quite a few studies done to examine the effect.

One research group even did a sort of randomised controlled trial on bars and music in a fantastic real-world experiment.

One study by Gueguen et al. (2004) 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.

Tags
Science

More like this

Beer and Science: Two great things together for one post only
Cunningham SC, McNear B, Pearlman RS, Kern SE. Beverage-agarose gel electrophoresis: an inquiry-based laboratory exercise with virtual adaptation. CBE Life Sci Educ. 2006 Fall;5(3):281-6. Aw, universities. Engaging undergraduates by bringing beer into the laboratory. No, not hiding six-packs in the…
Say it isn't so
The NYT reports on a this article by Tomas Grim of the Dept of Zoology at Palacky Univ purporting to show a negative effect on numbers of scientific publications for scientists correlated with increasing beer consumption. According to the study, published in February in Oikos, a highly respected…
Does Cranberry Juice Help Repress or Reduce Urinary Tract Infections? A study in skeptical juice drinking.
After I reported this recent and interesting research paper about urinary tract inflictions, a number of conversations broke out on that post, on my facebook page, and via email, and some of these conversations raised the question of cranberry juice and whether the idea that it prevents, reduces,…
Possible Cytoprotective Effect of Alcohol
Ethanol is a poison.  But the difference between poison and medicine sometimes is only a matter of dosage. For decades, there have been studies that purport to show a small benefit from regular consumption of small amounts of ethanol, with obvious problems caused by excessive alcohol consumption…