24 July 2008
Loud Bar Music Causes Customers To Drink More?
UPFRONT, news, night online, COMMENTS
Customers of bars that play loud music drink more quickly and with larger sips, French researchers said on Friday.
Their study, which will be published in the October issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, available via Blackwells, found that turning up the music spurred drinkers to drink a glass of beer roughly three minutes faster.
"We have shown that environmental music played in a bar is associated with an increase in drinking," said head researcher Nicolas Gueguen, a behavioral sciences researcher at the University of Southern Brittany.
Researchers discretely visited two bars for three Saturday evenings in a medium-size city located in the west of France. The study subjects, 40 males 18 to 25 years of age, were unaware that they were being observed; only those who ordered a glass (25 cl) of draft beer were included. Observers would randomly manipulate the sound levels (either 72 dB or 88 dB) of the music in the bar (top 40 songs) before choosing a participant. After the observed participant left the bar, sound levels were again randomly selected and a new participant was chosen.
It was found that louder music spurred more consumption, with the average number of drinks ordered by patrons rising to 3.4 drinks from 2.6 drinks, Gueguen found. The time taken to drink a beer fell to an average 11.45 minutes from 14.51 minutes.
The researchers acknowledged limitations to their study, and said the experiment was on a small scale and could not be applied to every bar.
From: Night Online
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That's obvious. If you can't hear to talk at the bar you dink more. Not sure it does anything for your 'premiumised' atmosphere though.
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The french drink differently to Brits. the fact that they;re drinking halves says it all.
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