Alcohol dulls men's ability to recognize emotions

It was known before that alcohol can weaken the ability to recognize other people's emotions through facial expressions, but this issue was studied mainly in laboratory studies, which gave rather ambiguous results. In particular, it was unclear what role the gender of the "consumer" plays in this. The new scientific work has studied for the first time the mechanism of alcohol's effect on this part of perception in real conditions with the participation of men and women with different levels of alcohol intoxication.

The study's authors found 114 volunteers in bars and restaurants in a small town in the southern United States, 60% of whom were men. The participants were asked questions about how often and how much they drank. Then, using a tablet computer, they looked at photographs of faces expressing one of five emotions: anger, joy, sadness, disgust, or neutral. The concentration of alcohol consumed by the volunteers was measured using a breathalyzer.

After the scientists analyzed the data, it turned out that elevated blood alcohol levels were associated with a decrease in the ability to recognize emotions in men, while in women this function weakened slightly. Notably, men "under the influence" quite accurately identified expressions of joy, but negative emotions, including sadness or disgust, were not.

According to the authors of the study, these results clearly confirm previous findings that alcohol does not allow one to adequately identify social cues. This can contribute to aggression and violence, primarily on the part of men. This probably affects women less, so the ability to recognize emotions on other people's faces protects them from dangerous behavior while intoxicated. According to the scientists, future studies should pay more attention to personal psychological characteristics that enhance "alcohol myopia."