Hangover Shame Curbs Binge Drinking

You’d be lying if you said that you’ve never woken up from a night of drinking with friends and immediately regretted every single one of your decisions the night before. Well, maybe not, if you’ve never had a drink before in your life, you’re obviously excluded from this thought.

Whether you made a poor decision with men, embarrassed yourself, drunk texted, or ruined some article of clothing of yours, we’ve all been there. I can almost guarantee that after you gather your thoughts and realize everything that you did the night before, that one thought will always go through your mind: “I’m never drinking again.”

Of course, this is also a lie; we always end up drinking again. Or do we? A new study conducted by psychology professor Elizabeth Loftus has found that poor hangover memories can curb binge drinking.

The professor implanted false memories into her participants of what had happened during drinking binges gone bad. As a result, a full twenty percent of people tones down their drinking, proving that embarrassing yourself when drinking is a huge deterrent to drinking that much again.

I mean, I didn’t need a psychological study to tell me this. I think the bigger problem is, finding out a way to deter people who do embarrass themselves, but feel no remorse over it.

What do you think?

Ally Batista | Elite.

Twitter: @allybatista

Photo Credit: Getty Images