Conventional wisdom tells us that drinking inhibits our ability to think clearly, and while that’s not necessarily false, it’s also not necessarily bad. According to a recent study published in Consciousness and Cognition, moderate alcohol consumption (that’s the key!) may actually make men (temporarily) smarter — at least when it comes to creative thinking and problem-solving.
Researchers at the University of Illinois recruited 40 social drinkers for an experiment to test the effects of alcohol on various types of cognition. Half of the participants were instructed to watch the animated film Ratatouille while drinking enough vodka-cranberry cocktails to give them a blood alcohol level of .075 (below the legal limit of .08); the other half had to watch the same movie sober. Before and after the fact, both groups were asked to complete brain teasers like the ones presented at the beginning of this article.
All 40 subjects performed similarly well on the aforementioned creative cognitive tests prior to the movie (and the alcohol), but after, those in the vodka-cranberry group averaged nine correct questions to the control group’s six. They also answered approximately 3.7 seconds faster than their sober peers.
The researchers speculated that this boost in creativity was due in part to an opposite effect on working memory, which is the ability to remember one thing while you’re thinking of something else. Basically, they explained in their report, men are able to think more creatively because they’re thinking more freely. That is, they’re not limited by their own linear reasoning.
“We have this assumption that being able to focus on one part of a problem or having a lot of expertise is better for problem solving, but that’s not necessarily true,” psychologist and study co-author Jennifer Wiley explained in a new commentary on the Federation of Associations in Behavior and Brain Sciences Web site. “Innovation may happen when people are not so focused. Sometimes it’s good to be distracted.”
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