Pumped up volume can pump the drinking
Tom Spears , Canwest News Service
OTTAWA - Men in bars drink more and drink faster when loud music is playing, a French scientist says.
And Nicolas Gueguen wants bar owners to turn down the volume as a result, in order to slow down the drinking.
That may stand as much chance as asking bar owners to order Mennonite outfits for the waitresses, but the study is running all the same in a medical journal today. Alcohol kills approximately 70,000 people every year in France.
Men in bars drink more and drink faster when loud music is playing, a French scientist says. And Nicolas Gueguen wants bar owners to turn down the volume as a result, in order to slow down the drinking.
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Email to a friend
Printer friendly
The psychologists sat in a bar and watched a total of 40 men over the study period, remaining nonchalant to avoid detection, and counting those cute little French 250-millilitre glasses of biere en fut.
With music at 72 decibels, the clientele drank moderately. With music up to 88 decibels (below the level of a rock concert, but pretty loud), the men appeared more energized, and so did their drinking: an average of 3.4 glasses per customer with loud music, versus 2.6 with ordinary music. And they drank a glass three minutes faster, on average, when the music was loud.
There may be a second reason, besides excitement, the French team says.
In science-speak: "Loud music may have had a negative effect on social interaction in the bar."
Translation from J.P. MacDonald, a veteran Ottawa club DJ: if you can't hear the person beside you, you stop talking and drink instead.
"As a broad generalization, I think if you increase the volume of music or just the whole feel of a room, yeah, I think people would probably tend to drink a little more," says MacDonald. But he says there's more to the equation than loudness.
"I don't think the music has to be loud. I think the music has to be good," he adds. "I tend to think more about the style of music. When I have an AC/DC tribute band in, the crowd drinks more. Now it's a loud band, yes, but other bands are loud, too," and the crowds don't drink as energetically.
In fact, he says, there are a lot of subtle tweaks in music that can influence a crowd's mood, and therefore its drinking.
"I'm a DJ, so I play it from a whole psychological point of view. I can tell when people are happy or sad or whatever," and he chooses music to fit the mood - or to change it.
