Friday, December 30, 2011

Why do smart kids grow up to be heavier drinkers?


Yes, Smart and Heavy Drinkers all in one sentence. The article going around facebook hit the right spot and made me want to do some online tinkering.


A pair of new studies suggests a correlation between intelligence and a thirst for alcohol. What's the connection? According to two long-term studies — one American, one British —  there's a correlation between smarts and a thirst for alcohol. The "more intelligent children in both studies grew up to drink alcohol more frequently and in greater quantities than less intelligent children,"
It's all about evolution: Drinking alcohol was "unintentional, accidental, and haphazard until about 10,000 years ago," says Satoshi Kanazawaat at Psychology Today. Smart people are generally early adopters and, in the context of human history, "the substance [alcohol] and the method of consumption are both evolutionarily novel." The Hypothesis would therefore predict that more intelligent individuals may be more likely to prefer drinking modern alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, and distilled spirits) than less intelligent individuals.
Consistent with the prediction of the Hypothesis, more intelligent children, both in the United Kingdom and the United States, grow up to consume alcohol more frequently and in greater quantities than less intelligent children.  Controlling for a large number of demographic variables, such as sex, race, ethnicity, religion, marital status, number of children, education, earnings, depression, satisfaction with life, frequency of socialization with friends, number of recent sex partners, childhood social class, mother's education, and father's education, more intelligent children grow up to drink more alcohol in the UK and the US.


Though studies were done and tested in the American and British environment, I think the above articles taken from the below acknowledged web links are heavily applicable to us here in the Philippines. I have been a self-confessed drinker for 10 years now and still, I have manage to make a career for my self in the Telco industry, having said that: with proper control, choice of drinks and the people you would do it over with plus the doesn't get drunk mastery - I believe to be one of the Smart ones and I have some good friends from that bunch as well.

Cheers to all the Drinks and Good Times this Holiday Season! :)

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