WASHINGTON, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A study of the effects of music levels on drinking in a bar setting has found that loud music leads to more drinking in less time.
Results will be published in a future issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are released Friday at its Early View.
"Previous research had shown that fast music can cause fast drinking, and that music versus no music can cause a person to spend more time in a bar," said lead investigator Nicolas Gueguen." This is the first time that an experimental approach in a real context found the effects of loud music on alcohol consumption."
Researchers discretely visited two bars for three Saturday evenings. The study subjects, 40 males 18 to 25 years of age, were unaware that they were being observed; only those who ordered a glass of draft beer were included. With permission from the bar owners, observers would randomly manipulate the sound levels of the music in the bar.
Results showed that high sound levels led to increased drinking, within a decreased amount of time.
Gueguen and his colleagues offered two hypotheses for why this may have occurred. "One, in agreement with previous research on music, food and drink, high sound levels may have caused higher arousal, which led the subjects to drink faster and to order more drinks," said Gueguen. "Two, loud music may have had a negative effect on social interaction in the bar, so that patrons drank more because they talked less."
"We have shown that environmental music played in a bar is associated with an increase in drinking," he said. "We need to encourage bar owners to play music at more of a moderate level ...and make consumers aware that loud music can influence their alcohol consumption."
