Drinking Alcohol Could Make You Smarter, Researcher Says

Can drinking beer make you smarter? Perhaps, according to a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Cognitive psychologist Jennifer Wiley and her team came to this conclusion after getting her subjects drunk -- yes, really -- and testing their creative problem-solving skills. Compared to how they performed pre-intoxication, subjects with a blood alcohol level of 0.07 were worse at working memory tasks, but better at creative-solving tasks.

The Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences's website explains:

That's because the alcohol helped study participants access remote ideas, ideas that develop through association not linear analysis. In fact, linear reasoning can keep people focused on ideas they think are important but really aren't.

For example, if Wiley asked you to tell her what word goes with the following: blue, cottage, Swiss. And you said, "cheese," you'd be accessing your remote ideas, not linear ones. That is, you associated blue, cottage, and Swiss with cheese, a commendable and constructive thing to do.

So, will you be grabbing a couple brewskies the next time your office is looking to drum up better ideas? Just make sure those meetings have a designated driver.

Related on HuffPost:

Comments

[BurningStarz]

03:53 AM on 08/21/2012

I drink alcohol but I don't believe that ish...
I dunno who is paid to make these kind of research but...drugs are the best way to keep control on populations. To make them lazy and not able to complain...but able to accomplish tasks.
If some of you really believe that you get smarter by drinking or smoking then you're ready for the matrix, seriously...

[viciousvirago]

09:22 AM on 04/16/2012

Oh,man I cannot believe you're literally giving your employees permission to get soused during lunch! I never had that privilege, being a trauma surgeon, but I did get soused during med school and internship and residency...sometimes. I never operated hungover and kept a check on my drinking, lest I kill someone.

Beer is the drink of he gods. Been around thousands of years. Of course, I don't think beer was very good during the reign of the Roman Empire.

[NickRoseDigsFood]

06:52 PM on 04/15/2012

Are beer and wine good for me? Yes, there is a reason why almost every single culture on the planet has figured out how to convert some type of readily available carbohydrates into a magical elixir...check out this recent podcast and article on 'healthy drinking'

http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/nutrition/ask/wine_beer.html

[one1byke]

03:16 PM on 04/15/2012

drunks.

[BeerLover]

09:59 AM on 04/15/2012

Because of my name, many people on HP berate me....'have another six pack,' 'yeah, put down that beer' and other sordid things I don't want to repeat....because we're talking about beer....and beer is good!

I drink very few American beers....well, simply, because they're really bad. Southern Tier Brewery excluded, and a few seasonal goodies from Shipyard.

Germans, Belgians, Czech's, Poles and Brits make the BEST beer. Oh, and I've had some fantastic French beer as well.

The best current beer maker in the world, in my opinion, consistently good with ALL it's products, is Samuel Smith. I like heavy beers in winter and light in summer. Samuel Smith makes all of them fantastic....well, except the IPA...i don't care for ANY IPA.

Poland's WARKA Strong, comes in a glowing and gorgeous second! Like your beers light??... the Czechs make so many great ones...that you have to try at least a few. Pilsner Urquell is a bit heavy and bitter...but hey, we all have different tastes.

[cmacattack]

05:38 PM on 04/25/2012

I'm the exact opposite, i like lighter beers in the fall and winter and darker, heavier beers in the spring and summer.

[KarmaPatrol]

07:30 PM on 04/14/2012

Deng straight, skippy. Barkeep, 1 bourbon, 1 scotch, 1 beer (this does not include American light beer i.e. "beer-drink")

[FlowerGypsy]

03:04 PM on 04/14/2012

what

[rikster]

08:00 PM on 04/13/2012

I've heard this before.....

[Fromageball]

05:50 PM on 04/13/2012

Well, I used to drink a couple glasses of wine while writing papers for school...helps the thoughts flow - then I would edit while sober. That said, what else would one associate with blue, cottage, and Swiss other than cheese?

[jferrante9]

03:11 AM on 08/06/2012

A blue swiss cottage!

[luckylily88]

11:13 AM on 04/13/2012

I knew it. We always seem to come up with the best ideas while drinking, but can't understand what we were doing once we sober up. Must be the intelligence gap.

[qaan]

08:56 AM on 04/13/2012

Cliff Clavin knew this fact years ago.

[Ginta California]

10:48 PM on 04/12/2012

Yes! I can now go after that Nasa rocket scientist job that I'v always wanted with my 6 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon at the ready.

[STaR Scream 81]

04:24 PM on 04/12/2012

Beer: The cause and solution to all of life's problems.

[BeerLover]

09:51 AM on 04/15/2012

Actually....it's "alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." Homer Simpson

[STaR Scream 81]

09:23 PM on 04/15/2012

LOL yeah, thats right, I couldn't remember exactly how it went which is sad bc at one time I had most of Homers best quotes memorized.

[RS]

03:01 PM on 04/12/2012

Since this thread is about beer drinking, here's an important proverb to remember:

When you're out of Bud -- TOUGH SCHLITZ!

:>)

[Shirley Fisk]

02:19 PM on 04/12/2012

4/12/12
2:19pm
NYPL

Beer makes me good at sleeping. And I'm already pretty good at that.