Friday, August 31, 2012
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Glass Shape Affects How Quickly People Drink Alcohol.
“The participants were almost twice as slow when drinking alcohol from
the straight-sided glass compared to the curved glass. There was no
difference in drinking rates from the glasses when the drink was
non-alcoholic. The researchers suggest that the reason for this may be
because it is more difficult to accurately judge the halfway point of
shaped glasses. As a result, drinkers are less able to gauge how much
they have consumed.”
It's like Piaget for grown-ups. I experimented a bit with this last night. The cups at the club are wider at the top than the bottom, have various amounts of ice, and the gin and the tonic mix unevenly; the alcohol tends to stay at the bottom, so you can drink it quickly with a straw or more slowly by sipping from the cup. For the last drink I had tequila and tonic, which tastes bad, so I drank more slowly. Bartenders have different shaped glasses for different drinks, so there's already been years of research done on this, but nobody collecting the data formally. Somebody could do a survey of bartenders and see if they have any thoughts. Also I wonder what the experimental design was.
It's like Piaget for grown-ups. I experimented a bit with this last night. The cups at the club are wider at the top than the bottom, have various amounts of ice, and the gin and the tonic mix unevenly; the alcohol tends to stay at the bottom, so you can drink it quickly with a straw or more slowly by sipping from the cup. For the last drink I had tequila and tonic, which tastes bad, so I drank more slowly. Bartenders have different shaped glasses for different drinks, so there's already been years of research done on this, but nobody collecting the data formally. Somebody could do a survey of bartenders and see if they have any thoughts. Also I wonder what the experimental design was.
Comments:
Post a Comment
