Why people embarass themselves at office parties





The brain learns to compensate for the inhibition-lowering effects of alcohol when in a familiar setting, such as a pub or at home with friends, they discovered.


Researchers found that when people drank in a particular context, such as in the same room, they developed a tolerance over time and the disinhibitory effect of alcohol went away. When exposed to alcohol in a different environment, they were less inhibited again.

“When you drink in the pub, we have generally had lots of experience of that and have learned to build up tolerance. As you don’t normally drink alcohol at work, you haven’t had the chance to build up this tolerance so people tend to be less inhibited,” explained the leader of the research team.

She added: “Being at a party will also make people more excited and will probably increase that effect further. Also once you start getting a bit disinhibited the most likely outcome is to drink more and could lead to binge drinking.

“It probably explains why people do things at office parties that they regret the next day.”