U of I Study Shows Men Are Smarter After A Couple Beers

By Samantha Abernethy in Food on Apr 13, 2012 9:00PM

Mel Hill Photography

"To Alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all of life's problems." - Homer Simpson

Researchers from the University of Illinois-Chicago discovered that men who are a bit tipsy are better at solving problems than those who were sober. They gave one group of men a couple of beers, putting them at a 0.07 blood alcohol content, and they kept the other group sober. The ones who drank solved 40 percent more problems and finished 3.5 seconds faster than the sober men.

Granted, those drinkers were worse at memorization tasks, but that's probably why it works. Chicago Magazine's Whet Moser writes:

Drinking makes you less focused and less able to reason. Or, as the authors put it, "the advantage of low WMC [working memory capacity] individuals was driven by their use of simple heuristics and less persistence in using complex, resource intensive approaches." (This is why there are lots of famous drunk artists, but no famous drunk accountants.) Rather than using a time-consuming, brain-consuming step-by-step method, being unable to stick with such a process makes people fall back on intuition and association, which actually works better.

It's worth noting that this study proves Cheers character Cliff Clavin's famous "Wounded Buffalo Theory" of alcohol's effect on brain cells.

Well, you see, Norm, it’s like this. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it’s the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine.

And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.

Below is a sketch from British sketch comedy show That Mitchell And Webb Look explaining how "everything mankind does is much, much easier if you're ever so slightly drunk." It also serves as a cautionary tale of what happens when you overdo it.