10:34am UK, Sunday August 18, 2002

People really are better looking to those who have had a drink, according to scientists in Scotland.

Girls and boys were shown 120 photographs of the opposite sex and asked to rate them on a scale of one to seven.

The more people drank, the more attractive members of the opposite sex become, the study involving 80 students found.

SP pint of beer

Beer: Looking good

Compared to their sober counterparts, those who drank just a moderate amount of alcohol found the faces of people 25% better-looking.

Stimulating

"The increase in perceived attractiveness appeared to be the same for the ugly people as the pretty people," the professor who led the study said.

"Everyone's heard of the beer goggles effect but we wanted to measure once and for all whether a moderate amount of alcohol increases the judgement of facial attractiveness.

"The beer goggles phenomenon is caused by alcohol stimulating the part of the human brain which is used to determine facial attractiveness."

So, the scientists claim, the so-called "beer goggles" phenomenon does exist.