Fighting Illini Reveal Booze Makes You Smarter

This may surprise you, based on some of the decisions you have made while under the influence, but new research says it’s alcohol makes you smarter.

A new study conducted at the University of Illinois has shown that drinking can actually make a person smarter. They studied the effects of alcohol on the agile minds of 40 young men when doing brain teasers. Half of the group were given simple word association games and the other half got to drink two pints of beer and then do the word association games.

The surprised and sobered researchers were startled to find that the group who had enjoyed a couple of beers were actually able to solve 40% more of the puzzles than the group who had no beer. The drinkers also spent less time solving each teaser than the non-drinkers.

Of course, the cloud in this silver lining is that there is a fine line between enough alcohol to make you a little smarter and enough alcohol to make you a lot stupid. According to Jennifer Wiley, the author of the study report, “We tested what happens when people are slightly merry, not when people drink to extremes.”

So, when you’ve been out living it up and you feel like you’re about to do something dumb, stop and think about how much you’ve had to drink. Maybe whatever you’re about to do is actually really smart. Although, if you can’t remember it in the morning, you’ve gone too far.

[via Joe.ie]