Since the time of Ponce De Leon and even before, we’ve been searching for an elixir that makes us look younger and more attractive to the person sitting across the table, but it turns out that exhaustive search may have been futile, because the true elixir was under our noses this whole time: a glass of wine.
As first reported by Live Science, scientists at the University of Bristol conducted a study in order to determine how attractive people appeared to others after they had consumed a glass of wine – it’s worth nothing that this was not a test of whether beer goggles are real as the individuals who were rating the people on an attractiveness scale were completely sober. The people who consumed the glass of wine were those whose attractiveness was being rated.
What the scientists discovered is that after the consumption of one glass of vino, the individuals were perceived as more attractive than when they were sober. Here’s how it worked: photos were taken of the individuals prior to drinking a glass of wine, and then once again after they finished their glasses. Across the board, the individuals were said to be prettier, healthier and generally more attractive in their post-vino pictures than in the completely sober photos.
Scientists believe the reason the test subjects were perceived as more attractive after a glass of wine has to do with the impact wine has on the body’s chemistry. Wine helps people relax, leading to a loosening of facial muscles. It also causes pupil dilation, which is a key signal our instincts react to positively, especially when it comes to identifying a mate-able partner. Finally, it drives color to people’s faces, a key trait we look for in people we identify as being healthy.
However, before you go downing an entire bottle of wine, looking to drink as much as possible from this newly discovered beauty elixir, there is a catch: the researchers also discovered that consuming more than one drink caused that same perception of attractiveness to plummet. One drink it seems, is the proper dosage, especially if you’re on a first date!
