back to article Drunk sorority girls quaff booze 'to impress boys'

Researchers say that American college girls drink heavily in order to get the attention of the opposite sex, but that this is backfiring as US college boys actually prefer a less boozy ladyfriend. "Women have steadily been drinking more and more over the last several decades," says Joseph LaBrie, psych prof at Loyola Marymount …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mmm...drunken sorority girls

    Does this qualify me as a dirty old man?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fallacious headline...

    I'm not sure the headline is entirely correct, as the study seems to make no mention of sorority affiliation in the women surveyed. Perhaps the word "Sorority" should be replaced by "University".

  3. elder norm

    Wrong again

    Sheezzzze. Its not the amount of drink that we guys are impressed by. What a dumb idea.

    We just want the ladies to be easy going. Of course they get that way after more drinks, but we would be just as happy if they were that way in the beginning after a quick beer.

    Just a thought.

    en

  4. al
    Paris Hilton

    reminds me of a satirewire article

    ... where they concluded that drunk girls are more fun to study.

    -------

    I would say that the questions have to be framed very precisely to get the actual answers. It would be very easy to mislead the subject into answering something they really don't mean.

    eg: Would like to date a girl who is a drunkard ?

    ans: No. (But in reality most guys probably prefer that their girlfriend goes out with them for a drink now and them).

    or:

    - Would you prefer to be friends with a girl who is always high on booze.

    - no.

    OTOH:

    - Would you mind being friends with a girl who has a drink with her in all parties ?

    - no problemo.

    Bottom line is: girls who drink as much as guys but are not drunkards are not problem to many guys i know. Girls who get drunk and embarrass their friends are a problem - just like a male friend would be. A study by a biased source can very easily derive a meaning they want to.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    no shit sherlock award

    Newsflash:

    Male teens do stupid things to impress the opposite sex

    Female teens do stupid things to impress the opposite sex

    This has been the overriding trend for as long as recorded history

    Professor gets paid too much for pointless research

  6. Alex C
    Thumb Up

    Surely can't be Friday already?

    Whilst I never tire of these sorts of articles, this is normally reserved for when el Reg are particularly bored.

    Heavy lunchtime session by any chance?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Beer Googles?

    No, they just drink more because US boys are ugly.

  8. Sebastian Brosig

    Grant

    > He now plans a survey in the other direction, to see if the boys are actually only drinking

    > so much because they think women find it attractive.

    Whoosch-- there goes the Anheuser-Busch funding for his research.

  9. Ray
    Alien

    ummm...

    at uni, i got very drunk on a regular basis because it was cheap and i could, no other reason. i was very immature and stupid, like most of the other young men around me. i always assumed the girls at uni got smashed to get over the fact that all the men around them were complete idiots, rather than thinking it made THEM more attractive to US. if that's the case, it's a pretty sad fact.

    alien coz young men are in bars and young women want... no, i won't finish that.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Wrong Conclusion?

    Perhaps the girls drink lots so that the blokes appear more attractive!

  11. Pantelis
    Paris Hilton

    Clueless

    I think this is another case where a clueless researcher tried to match a hypothesis to a phenomenon and failed miserably by focusing just on that hypothesis.

    The phenomenon here is increased drinking amongst university girls...the hypothesis of the researcher is that they do it to impress boys. The hypothesis is clueless and should have been a question.

    Why is there increased drinking amongst girls? A bunch of well placed questions later would have driven them to make the link between the fact that guys get girls drunk because when drunk they behave more like paris hilton and all which that entails (you can each use your imagination from here on).

  12. John A Blackley

    Take it from..........

    If you want to know why men like women to drink (no opinion here about how much), listen to Jack Nicholson explain to Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment.

    MacLaine: Are you trying to get me drunk to take advantage of me?

    Nicholson: No........... I'm just trying to kill that bug you have up your ass.

  13. Dan Atkinson

    Syndication?

    So this came from The Onion I take it?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sorority?!?!?

    This word means nothing to me.

    It sounds like a drunk girl trying to apologise for falling on top of me.

  15. Frank

    Practical Considerations and Safety

    I would not consider any kind of relationship with a woman who had more than one small alcoholic drink in the evening. How is she supposed to drive me home if she has more than that?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So far neither the article nor the comments mention "liquid courage"

    Many young men I knew in high school and college drank largely because they were calmer, found it easier to talk to women, and took rejection more easily if they had a few drinks in them. Drinking was also a popular way to relax and release some of the stress of school and work. Yet another reason was that alcohol was about the only activity readily available after hours, and large groups could do it together at not much expense.

    Perhaps some better civic and school planning to give people a chance to do something after classes are over would cut back on the large drinking parties. Keeping young men and women in class until dark, having them study for hours, then giving them letting them loose onto a town in which nothing is open but bars and house parties encourages drinking. How could it not?

  17. adnim

    Of course

    All men know that there is nothing more attractive than a pissed up tart.

    Is this the same logic that encourages women to think that a kilo of make-up smeared across their faces makes them more attractive?

  18. Sampler

    And maybe...

    Someone can tell them that thin girls don't have to be rakes and curves are sexy - that way I can go on a date where she'll at least enjoy the expensive fucking meal.

  19. Anonymous John
    Paris Hilton

    She's not a student,

    so what's her excuse?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    Since when do you drink to impress?

    You drink to have a good time ... It thought that was common knowledge?

  21. Tim
    Paris Hilton

    @ Frank

    Too right, and anyway what's she doing out in the first place, isn't there cooking and cleaning to be done?

    Paris, cos she'd never do anything silly after a couple of drinks

    Tim#3

  22. Fernando
    Paris Hilton

    Duh!

    And they needed to run a scientific study to discover that?

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    "And a white wine for the laydees!"

    All hail the pub landlord! :-D

  24. Eugene Goodrich
    Paris Hilton

    I demand scientific rigor

    Where's the extra testing to help determine causality as opposed to correlation?

    Perhaps gals drink more because they think guys want them to be doing so. Or, perhaps gals who drink a bunch tell researchers guys want them to be drinking lots because it's a fine excuse. That would explain the coincidence between the various women's drinking quantities and the amount they reported they thought guys wanted a gal to drink.

    Paris, because I'd just tell her she's got a two-drink maximum and she'd be fine with that, the dear.

  25. Alexis Vallance

    USA

    They have a different drinking culture over there anyway though.

    3 bottles is a heavy session over there.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    geer boggles

    And here I thought it was that college boys drank to transform fat and homely cows into supermodels, while college girls drank to transform tubby dolts into into handsome and witty alpha males, and both genders drank to excess because it's a whole lot easier to get your current lust-object into bed if he or she is drunker than you are.

    At least, that's what I think I remember from my college years. I'm not sure. I was pretty drunk most of the time.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Red Bull

    and vodka please :)

    Women drink because they enjoy the effect, and some guys like lushes, some don't, and some don't care. This is all pesudo scientific quakery.

    Sociology is not anything new, it was used in feudal Japan, and it is just charlatanism. They examine a group of people and using that information they offer up a result they want to hear, the ones under study are the ones paying the bill. In Japan they use to just put them to death.

  28. This post has been deleted by its author

  29. Peter Kay

    Not a majority, then

    If 26% think men like women who drink lots of beer, that indicates there may be up to 74% who don't.. (is the 16% contained in the 26%, perhaps, or separate?).

    Still, hardly news that teenagers do stupid things in general, will do especially stupid things for the chance of getting laid (instead of, say, telling the person they like them) and make other mistakes to provide enough experience so that they don't do it again..

    C'mon, has this ever not been the case? Adults aren't much more sensible, either.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    The fun is in the journey

    Who cares about the result... what matters is that the guy who's researching this gets to spend loads of time with drunken sorority girls... lucky bas*ard!

    Paris, because.... well, why not! ;p

  31. MnM
    Thumb Down

    how does this crap get funded?

    'He now plans a survey in the other direction, to see if the boys are actually only drinking so much because they think women find it attractive.'

    Pointless.

    The lying, deceitful, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-their-mouths toerags who constituted the male half of this study have given their preferred level of female drunkenness. I hypothesise that their stated level is utter bollocks, especially if the sample was taken from the prof's own Catholic university. 'As drunk as necessary, Prof' is the only answer I'd take at face value.

  32. Eddie Edwards
    Happy

    A Jesuit Tradition?

    "Women have steadily been drinking more and more over the last several decades," says Joseph LaBrie, psych prof at Loyola Marymount University, a Catholic college "rooted in the Jesuit tradition".

    You know, that could be read as:

    "Women have steadily been drinking more and more over the last several decades, rooted in the Jesuit tradition".

    I think we should be told.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    I drink...

    ...To make others more interesting. I bet they do, too.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Not true

    My girlfriend is a student (as am I) and sometimes I find it hard to keep up with her drinking!

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @Eddie Edwards

    "Rooted in the Jesuit tradition" is particularly funny if considered from an Australian perspective.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This article is just crying out

    for a Playmobil recreation. Bring on teh drunk nekkid plastic chicks

  37. Inachu
    Heart

    Grrrr

    I have been with lots and lots of lady friends but I have never ever been with a drunk lady friend.

    Hats off to those lucky gents who have!

  38. Fashtas

    @David Wiernicki

    > "Rooted in the Jesuit tradition" is particularly funny if considered from an Australian perspective.

    Well, that sort of depends on your recollections of the Jesuit School you used to go to doesn't it? :)

  39. tweell

    tech

    The mating cry of the blonde - "I am sooo drunk!"

    The mating cry of the ugly blonde- "I SAID I am sooo drunk!"

  40. Peter Stern
    Stop

    Dangerous...

    Given the state of Sexual Assault laws in the US and Canada and some other places, it's a really BAD idea to get sexual with a girl that's drunk as she can later claim that you got her drunk to take advantage of her... and because she was drunk, she "didn't have the mental capacity to give consent"... and then you are at risk for getting charged AND convicted for sexual assault and all the social stigma that goes with that.

    It's better and legally safer to focus on girls that aren't drunk.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I drink therefore I'm slammed

    Brought to you by the people who thought otters are fish??? They drink altar wine every mass too.

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Peter Stern

    If the male is drunk does he have the mental capacity? Regardless of the answer your final statement is absolutely true.

    "It's better and legally safer to focus on girls that aren't drunk."

  43. Scott
    Paris Hilton

    @tweell

    mating of the brunette: "good, that blond bitch has gone home"

  44. Magilla
    Stop

    You're doing it wrong

    Guys like girls really drunk when they want to get laid, because it increases the chances somewhat. It's not what they look for when they want to be "dating" - just "bonking".

    "He now plans a survey in the other direction, to see if the boys are actually only drinking so much because it makes easy women more attractive."

    There, fixed that for you.

    For the record, I prefer women who don't drink at all...

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Once again: What the hell?!?!

    Where were all these women when I was in college? More to the point, where are their alienated, disenfranchised, unhappy, wine tasting mothers? Bring it on ladies, I’m not a picky man!

  46. Allan Dyer
    Coat

    More research needed...

    They asked when the students were sober?

    So what happens to the answers as the students get drunker...

    Where do I apply for the grant?

    Mine's the heavy one with the booze in the pcokets.

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    why do the guys drink?

    maybe the new research they intend to carry out will show that the guys drink because they think it makes the women seem more attractive

  48. Paul
    Pirate

    Jesuit tradition

    Wasn't Jebus a fan o' wine? I mean they'd sit around having sandwiches basically..and wine. Who the hell has sandwiches and wine?

    You'd think they'd be glad the boys are going off the girls. More for the priests (though they're probably too old).

    Drunk girls are more likely to put out. That's why they get male attention.

    There you go, just saved you a fortune in think-tank fees.

    Dumbasses.

  49. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Oz Tradition

    I suspect that at least one of you does not understand that writing "rooted in the Jesuit tradition" in Australia would imply that their vows of celibacy were regularly breached. I suspect that is not the case for the vast majority of the order. Still there may be defence in ignorance from the libel action or in being American.

    Paris because there is video evidence that she understands the term.

  50. Youngdog
    Paris Hilton

    Students get drunk at uni shock!

    In other news

    Bears refuse to defecate without adequate canopy shading

    Pope denies rumour of recent protestant conversion

    Anyway, I thought uni girls got drunk to make the experience of sleeping with men like me almost bearable.

    The 'proof' that the underlying reason for the drinking was to impress blokes seems vague. All I see is research into what women think men want. If they only knew that all men really need is for them to say 'yes - I will sleep with you' they would save themselves a fortune in beer tokens. Maybe the huge floating M$ advert WITH NO 'x' BUTTON got in the way of the articles stunning insight

    Paris, obviously

  51. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    What do men really want in a woman?

    Their penis! If you're scanning the room for the women most likely to be amenable to a quick roll in the hay, trust me, you will target the most tipsy ones first. Women also appear to target men who appear stoned (which I appear to be even when stone cold sober), but they may be looking for something other than sex. Having had bad experiences with alcoholic girlfriends in the past, I would definitely shy away from the drunken sorority girls when looking for someone for a long-term relationship.

    How drunk do you need to get Paris before she'll let you take her home?

  52. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    The real reason?

    I've a hunch the main reason college girls drink more is simply 'cos it's cheap and fun!

  53. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Unrealistic expectations, shu-shu-surely?

    Surely women drink more, because they can and because the gender roles & rules have changed? Formerly women had the expectation that a man would make up for his deficiencies by relegating her to the role of housewife/mother (bad as that might seem from a feminist perspective, there are a fair few out there with this ambition). Now what have they got to look forward to? Same old men, even less compensation. I'd need powerful intoxicants if I were a woman just to cope with myself.

  54. Neil Bauers
    Happy

    Beer Googles ...

    ... the mind boggles.

  55. jake Silver badge

    @Alexis Vallance, re: USA

    >They have a different drinking culture over there anyway though.

    Indeed. If you haven't spent time on both sides of the pond, and in the antipodes, commenting on the culture of alcohol across the English-ish speaking world is probably beyond your ken.

    >3 bottles is a heavy session over there.

    Three "bottles" can be. Here in Sonoma, we make wine. I don't know a lot of people who think 2.25l of plonk in a session is a good idea ... On the other side of the hill[1], they make some pretty good beers. Metacrawler for "Lagunitas Brewing", if you are interested. I wouldn't recommend three pints of Maximus or Brown Shugga in a session ...

    [1] In Blighty, it'd probably be called a mountain, at ~2300ft/700m ...

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