Does Loud Music Affect How People Behave in a Bar?

Hanging out in a bar with good music usually lifts everyone’s spirits, but is there another motive involved? A 2008 study conducted by behavioral researchers at the University of Southern Brittany in France looked at alcohol intake at two different bars over a three-week period, and discovered that people tend to drink more, and drink more quickly, when the decibel level of the background music is cranked up. The researchers observed a 31 percent increase in beer consumption when the music was raised from a base level of 72 dB to a louder 88 dB volume. The average patron drank 2.6 beers per visit at the lower noise level, and 3.4 beers when the music was louder. Patrons also drank beer more quickly, downing a brew in 14.51 minutes in normal conditions, and 11.45 minutes when the tunes got louder.

Play it again, Sam:

• The researchers said that “high sound levels may have caused higher arousal, which led the subjects to drink faster and to order more drinks.”
• The researchers also theorized that louder music tends to curtail conversation, so patrons may opt to concentrate on their drinking instead.
• The results were published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.