Beer goggles study wins Ig Nobel

A STUDY into the effect of “beer goggles” has won French researchers one of Harvard University’s Ig Nobel awards, the spoof version of the Nobel Prizes.

Researchers at Pierre Mendès-France University in Grenoble had proved that after drinking alcohol people feel that they are better looking. Their study, titled Beauty is in the Eye of the Beer-holder, was published in the British journal of Psychology last year.

The team, led by Laurent Bègue, asked people if they found themselves attractive and funny and showed that the more drink they consumed the more attractive they thought they were.

However, the study also found the same effect happened if people were given non-alcoholic drinks and told they were alcohol.

The awards are organised by the Annals of Improbable Research, which say they are intended to “first make people laugh, and then make them think”.

This year’s Ig Nobel Peace Prize went to the president of Belarus, who made public applause illegal – and then arrested a one-armed man for committing the offence.