Booze brings us together at bars and barbecues. But a new study found it’s also true in a different sense . . . as in sweaty drunk strangers invading your personal space.
Researchers had people sit in a room together, and monitored how far away they stayed from each other when they were sober, and when they got drunk. And drinking had a noticeable effect.
They found that when people only drank water, they more or less stayed the same distance away from each other the whole time. But once they started drinking alcohol, they moved about an inch closer every seven to eight minutes.
They did it in a lab setting without music or other people around. So they think the effect might be even more dramatic in loud, crowded places like bars.
The one time it didn’t have an effect was when the two people already knew each other. Friends tended to move closer together in the room over time, even when they weren’t drinking.
