When a girlfriend tells you that she is just a bit ‘tipsy’, will you let her drive on her own? A new study suggests you better don’t.
Ash Levitt, lead author of the study specializing in Social Psychology at the Research Institute on Addictions at the University at Buffalo, NY., and his team initiated the research to find out how women and men perceive drinking and how they describe the feeling when they are heavily intoxicated. This is based on the observation that men would usually say ‘I’m wasted’ while women say ‘I’m tipsy’.
They gathered 145 college students and asked them to read a story about a group of people—two men and two women— celebrating a birthday in a bar. The researchers switch the gender of the main character, the amount of alcohol he or she has consumed, and his or her behavior. The participants will have to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 each term that may best describe the level of intoxication of the main character. There were 15 terms used—four falls under moderately intoxicated category while 11 were heavily intoxicated.
The research team first checked if any of the genders have problem distinguishing moderate from heavy in which they all passed. They then looked at the ratings placed on each term which confirmed that women will often choose to use terms that fall under moderate category even if they knew that the character was heavily intoxicated. Men didn't show any problem with usage of terms.
Levitt explained in the study that women chose to use moderate terms because of the social and gender norms. It is still less acceptable to know that women are drinking excessively like men. That is why they choose to use words such as ‘tipsy’ or ‘buzzed’ to mask the fact that they are drunk.
The researchers find the result of this study disturbing because women are not being totally honest about their condition and were putting their safety at risk. Men also have a problem because the results reveal that they are heavily drinking most of the time which put their health at risk.
The study was published in the July 10 issue of online journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
