Faces and Places

Liquid lunch given a reprieve


Liquid lunch given a reprieveA study by psychologists at the University of Illinois suggests that workers that have a couple of drinks over lunch are more creative. The study, included in the journal Consciousness and Cognition, confirms that although tipsy employees might find it harder to focus on the task, there is more chance they’ll come up with innovative ideas. Anyone that has watched the trials and tribulations of The Wire will know how much Jimmy McNulty loves a drink and…well…they got some good results over time, didn’t they? (we’re not just talking about “results” over a car bonnet either)

The Economist, where the findings were cited, showed the increasing bias of many Americans towards an anti-drinking attitude. They mention several experiments that have linked even moderate drinking with stupidity and it’s something that professors call the “imbibing idiot bias”. There are even some that, if you go for a job interview in a pub and order a beer will dismiss your chances there and then.

Those that have the anti-drinking bias are part of the same “no fun ever” club as “experts” that constantly tell us we are eating, smoking and drinking ourselves to death. People abandoning the “liquid lunch” are another piece of this. Instead it should be part of a workers’ culture that is saved as something to admire and not simply shunned as disgraceful drunken debauchery.

Dr Patrick Basham, someone that has written columns for the site on matters like this, has gone to great lengths to dispel many of these myths and even shown that life expectancy in the USA has actually risen in these “oh-so-gluttonous” times. Contrary to what the experts will have you think, the average life expectancy has increased by two years over the past decade to 76.2 years for men and 81.1 years for women.

When you next think about having that pint, glass of wine or mixer at lunch just remember that the afternoon ahead could be full of innovation. We’re not saying go out and get wasted or anything, just that it’s as acceptable to have a pint of beer as it is a coke.

  • rachniff.fred

    as far as we know it, the Russians are the number 1 when it comes to alcoholic-beverages consumption… They just love their vodka and its fuckin cold!

  • David

    Hahaha! This is short of the ancient 18th amendment of the US constitution. But I think it's not about the beverage, it's about the person. I can get drunk all the time, but I can still choose not to hurt anyone (including myself) or so.

Back to Top