Running Head: ARTICLE REVIEW 1

Article Review

Name

Institution
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Article Review

Bègue, L., Bushman, B. J., Zerhouni, O., Subra, B., & Ourabah, M. (2012). ‘Beauty is in the eye

of the beer holder’: People who think they are drunk also think they are attractive. British

Journal of Psychology, 104(2), 225-234. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.2012.02114.x

Purpose of the Study

The researchers aimed to look into how alcohol affects self-perceived attractiveness.

Subjects

The study comprised of two studies. The first study had 19 participants while the second

one had 94 French men.

Procedure

Study 1

Participants were to rate how they were feeling at that instant using the following terms,

original, attractive, bright, and funny. The researchers also estimated the level of alcohol in the

blood. A debriefing was done afterwards.

Study 2

Participants took part in a taste-test study and for three hours they did not consume

anything except water before participating in the study. A random sampling was done to allocate

subjects to beverage conditions using a “balanced placebo design.” The balanced placebo design

allowed customers to have a drink with either alcohol or none. Each participant drunk a beverage

comprising of lemon, grapefruit, mint, and grenadine syrup. The researchers had half of the

subjects drink a beverage with an alcohol content of 2.01oz. Lastly, the researchers asked the

participants were filmed giving an advertising message. Once the verification was complete, a

debriefing followed.
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Treatment of Data

Data from both studies was analyzed using Anova, namely, given liquor versus not given

alcohol) and expected liquor versus expected no liquor). A Levine’s test was used to determine

group differences between alcohol and non-alcohol. Lastly, the researchers allowed independent

judges to validate the advertisement messages in the second study.

Results

Participants who thought they had drunk alcohol had more positive self-evaluation that

those who thought they had consumed liquor. Thus, the effect of alcohol was not substantial

even with alcohol content and expectancy. Alcohol polarization effect self-perceived

attractiveness was also not observed. Thus, the results suggested that alcohol expectancies

influence attractiveness self-evaluation and not the content alcohol.

Finding from judges’ ratings of the messages showed no significant effect. They showed

that the high rate of self-perception of attractiveness in people thinking they are drunk is not

correlated to way the autonomous raters perceived them. Judges unaware of the conditioned

beverage provided similar assessments to individuals who thought were drunk as well as those

who were sober.

Discussion

Being drunk makes a person think they are better looking than they actually are when

they are not drunk. However, this self-perception is a delusion. When autonomous judges’

ratings on attractiveness were not induced by actual or expected liquor. Study 2’s use of the

“balanced placebo design” showed that an increase in self-perceived attractiveness is the result
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of mental representation activation linked to liquor in long-term memory. Alcohol stimuli works

on implicit expectations that influence explicit self-perceptions.

Alcohol-related expectancies result in a general boost in perceived attractiveness and

even though there is no evidence to show that they decrease perceived attractiveness in people

who are not attractive. Thus, everyone thinks they are attractive after they consume alcohol. The

fact that differences between alcohol and non-alcoholic groups did not differ showed a lack of

alcohol polarization implication of self-perception of attractiveness. Therefore, it is important to

assess the polarization issue with regard to alcohol physiological influence. Lastly, the amount of

alcohol consumed is not linked to self-perceived attractiveness, which suggests the need for

looking into alcohol use, chronic self-representation, and pre-experimental individuals.

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Reference

Bègue, L., Bushman, B. J., Zerhouni, O., Subra, B., & Ourabah, M. (2012). ‘Beauty is in the eye

of the beer holder’: People who think they are drunk also think they are attractive. British

Journal of Psychology, 104(2), 225-234. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.2012.02114.x