Do "beer goggles" really exist?
Just ask Yahoo?! (LOVE how they had an actual study to refer to).

Anyway, since the weekend approaches, this is probably apropos.

Dear Yahoo!:

Do "beer goggles" really exist?
Tipsy

Dear Tipsy:
For those of you unfamiliar with the party scene, "beer goggles" refers to how people often appear more attractive to you after you've had a few drinks. For a long time, it was just a convenient excuse a person used to explain "regrettable
amorous encounters." However, according to a study at the Universities of Glasgow and St. Andrews, beer goggles (or "brew gogs" as they're
known in certain fraternal circles) are very real.

It's no secret that excessive drinking leads to poor judgment behind the wheel. Well, it can also
lead to poor judgment at your local pub. According to the aforementioned study, what constitutes "attractive" changes drastically after a few drinks. In other words, while you may think you're hitting on a 10, there's a chance you're actually picking up someone in the lower-single digits.

The reasons behind this phenomenon have to do with alcohol stimulating the nucleus accumbens, aka "the part of the brain which is used to determine facial attractiveness." In the 2002 study, male and female students were shown pictures of members of the opposite sex and asked
to rate them on a scale of 1-7 (sounds cruel, we know). The more students drank, the higher they rated the photographs.

We hope this sobering study helps encourage more responsible drinking. Remember -- if you're looking for love and don't want to wake up disappointed, you're better off at an ice-cream social than a keg-stand contest.

So there you have it.

And I had to steal this pic: