Since we are all students here at Penn State, there is no secret that the partying is top notch. A lot of kids come here just for the elusive frat parties and wild State Patty’s day. Throughout the average weekend 84% of students are consuming alcohol. If you walk down frat row any Saturday or Sunday morning you can easily see that most of it is consumed out of the classic red solo cup. They can almost always be found littered outside on the Frats lawns. You may not remember how much you drank last night but did you ever consider if the container you drank it out of mattered? I know I never have!
Until now, I never considered what the alcohol was coming out of, just that I knew it was probably going to be coming from a red solo cup. A new study at Bristol University is saying that the cup makes all the difference when it comes to alcoholic drinks. The study consisted of 160 social drinkers, ages 28 to 40 and were asked to drink lager or a non-alcoholic drink from a curved glass or a straight edged glass. The study found that it took participants almost twice as long to finish their beer from the straight edged glass than the curved glass. Researcher Angela Attwood suggests that the curved glass makes it harder to judge where the halfway point is, making it harder to realize how much you have consumed.
Attwood continued with studies conducting another one, but this time on the computer. Participants were presented with pictures of curved glasses and straight glasses with liquid in both. They were asked to gauge whether the glasses were more or less than half full. This experiment showed a greater error in judging the halfway point on the curved glass than in the straight edged one. In addition, the participants who showed the greatest error in this test were the ones that showed the greatest difference in the speed at which they drank the drinks in the first test. This shows that there is some variability depending on the type of person and the way that they drink.
This study is of high value to many associations as well as police who are trying to enforce safe drinking. Looking for ways to help slow the drinking process and avoid drinking that one too many are in high demand. For inexperienced college students who don’t know their limits, who knows this could be a lifesaver. I believe that there are many third variables involved with this trial. The atmosphere you are drinking in, stress levels, what you’re drinking and how you handle alcohol are all things that are important to consider. If someone has the mindset that they want to get drunk, not much is going to stop them. Someone who wants one beer and knows they have to drive home on the other hand may benefit from this more. Either way, it’s something that I never took into consideration before but might actually make a difference.
www.slate.com
Click to access CollegeStudents.pdf
theproofagency.com
http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20120731191424data_trunc_sys.shtml
It’s interesting to see how many people can misjudge the amount of alcohol they consume with a curved glass. It would even be harder for them to see if they are using a red solo cup in a dark lit frat. Unable to see through the red solo cup it may be difficult for someone to estimate when or if they have already had a drink or drinks beforehand. I think they study focuses more on bars and what they sell rather than college students drinking, seeing that they only did the study on people who were between the ages of 28 to 40. I found a website: http://gizmodo.com/5918077/what-the-lines-of-a-red-solo-cup-actually-mean
where it says that red solo cups have the lines on them for a reason. It measures out how much you are drinking. If more people knew this, they would be better able to estimate their alcohol intake. I think it would be interesting to see how many bars use either a straight or curved glass and why they chose the glass they did. All in all I think it comes down to how well people are educated about how much alcohol they are putting into their bodies when they go out and drink.
It’s interesting to see how many people can misjudge the amount of alcohol they consume with a curved glass. It would even be harder for them to see if they are using a red solo cup in a dark lit frat. Unable to see through the red solo cup it may be difficult for someone to estimate when or if they have already had a drink or drinks beforehand. I think they study focuses more on bars and what they sell rather than college students drinking, seeing that they only did the study on people who were between the ages of 28 to 40. I found a where it says that red solo cups have the lines on them for a reason. It measures out how much you are drinking. If more people knew this, they would be better able to estimate their alcohol intake. I think it would be interesting to see how many bars use either a straight or curved glass and why they chose the glass they did. All in all I think it comes down to how well people are educated about how much alcohol they are putting into their bodies when they go out and drink.
I see the point you are trying to make in regards to finding a way to slow the alcohol intake of college students, but I don’t think this study does much to lead a direction that would help that problem. You state that the majority of college parties use red solo cups but the study was done with glasses and had a main focus on visual perception. I think the point of the study was that since the participants can’t directly perceive the halfway point of their glass in the study they drank at a faster rate, rather than just the shape of the glass itself. With solo cups, you can’t see how much you are drinking at all since they are opaque. Maybe if there was an experiment done with red solo cups and clear disposable cups there would be more evidence to support your claim.
Also, I would ask if college students have different motives to drink compared to the general public, which could increase the rate at which they consume. Social Pressure? Depression? Just things to think about.