REAL LIFE NEWS: SEE, I TOLD YOU BEER WAS GOOD FOR YOU – AGAIN!
by Hazed
Artists have always used booze (not to mention less legal intoxicants) to boost their creativity. Now it turns out they are right to do so, because a new study shows that a pint of beer increases the ability to complete creative tasks.
Researchers from the University of Graz in Austria gave 132 people a creative test: they were given three words and had to come up with a word that could be connected to all of them. For example, the words peach, arm and tar can all be linked to the word pit.
They found that men who drank a pint of beer, and women who drank around 350ml, had higher test scores – in one word association test, the scores were boosted by around 40% when alcohol was involved.
The researchers think that the alcohol helps the brain to think “outside of the box” by removing the parameters which surround a problem, which allows more creative thought.
But while having a drink will help when trying to complete a cryptic crossword, alcohol decreases ‘Executive function’ and so it’s not going to help if the creative task also requires motor skills, such as dancing or painting.
Lead author Mathias Benedek, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Gras, said: “Anecdotal reports link alcohol intoxication to creativity. Creative problem solving tasks are often solved by spontaneous insight and accompanied by “Aha”-experiences.”
However, he cautioned that you shouldn’t overdo it: “Beneficial effects are likely restricted to very modest amounts of alcohol, whereas excessive alcohol consumption typically impairs creative productivity.”
Previous studies have suggested that the ideal blood alcohol level for creative endeavours is just below the legal limit for driving.
