Many people continue to consume alcohol, despite the fact that heavy drinking can cause distraction and heavy hangover – and scientists from the University of Washington tried to figure out why.
In the course of the research, experts conducted a survey among five hundred students of the University of Washington. They asked them to fill out questionnaires and to point out 35 negative phenomena related to alcohol consumption for the last year. Such could be a hangover, distraction, missed classes, stolen or lost items, etc. Also, the respondents were asked to indicate the positive – to some extent – effects of alcohol consumption.
After analyzing the data, the researchers found out that negative effects associated with alcohol are not considered very bad by the students interviewed, since almost all of them hoped this would not happen again. At the same time, the students hoped that the positive properties of alcohol would be repeated next time. In other words, drinkers were convinced that the good is getting better and better, while the bad does not become worse and worse.
According to the leading expert on social and behavioral sciences at Brown University, Christopher Kahler, the results suggest that people do not always come to the right conclusions in telling good from bad and seek to avoid future self-harm. The scientist believes that sometimes people just can’t imagine the effects of excessive alcohol consumption, and believe they will be able to avoid all the side effects.
