Beer can make you 'sociable'

Geneva, Sept. 19 (PTI): Feeling left out at a party?

Grab a glass of beer as scientists have confirmed that drinking alcohol can make people more sociable.

The team from University Hospital Basel in Switzerland tested 60 healthy people drinking alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer.

Participants took part in a range of tasks, including a face recognition test, empathy test and sexual arousal test.

"Although many people drink beer and know its effects through personal experience there is surprisingly little scientific data on its effects on the processing of emotional social information," said lead author Matthias Liechti, from the University Hospital Basel.

The desire to be with others, in a happy, talkative and open environment increased in the group which drank the alcoholic beer and was more marked in women and those with higher initial inhibitions, BBC News reported.

Beer also enhanced participants' emotional empathy, particularly in those with lower levels of initial empathy.

Participants who drank alcoholic beer also rated explicit sexual content as more pleasant.

This was most marked in the women participants, but researches found it did not actually enhance sexual arousal.

The study appears in the journal Psychopharmacology.

Earlier this year, the government revised the UK guidelines on drinking alcohol. Men and women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week.