Vodka Boosts Creativity

Science has now proven how drinking makes socializing more fun: A new study shows that alcohol spurs creative thinking. Or rather, a guy who drinks enough could actually become wittier (until he reaches the point of diminishing returns, of course).

Researchers took 40 subjects, all men, and divided them into a drinking group and non-drinking group. Twenty social drinkers watched an animated movie while snacking, then drank enough to reach an average blood alcohol level of 0.075 percent.

Another 20 social drinkers didn't eat or drink anything, while watching the same movie.

After the movie, the tipsy drinkers did better on "verbal resourcefulness" tests, where they found one word to connect to three other words (for example, "pit" for peach, arm, and tar). On average, those who drank took 11.5 seconds to complete each test, compared to the 15.2 seconds for sober men.

The researchers from University of Illinois at Chicago published their work in the journal Consciousness & Cognition, and their highlights are particularly noteworthy. Not only did the drinkers do well on the verbal tests, they wrote, but they also "were more likely to rate their solutions as insightful." That doesn't surprise us at all.

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