As Brad Paisley once sang, "You had some of the best times, you'll never remember with me, Alcohol."
Apparently, booze does bring us together at bars and barbecues, according to PNAS. According to a new study, it found that it's also true in a different sense... like sweaty drunk people invading your personal space!
Researchers had people sit in a room together, and monitored how far away they stayed from each other when they were sober, and when they got drunk. And drinking had a noticeable effect. The study was done at the University of Illinois and when people only drank water, they more or less stayed the same distance away from each other the whole time. But once they started drinking alcohol, they moved about an inch closer every seven to eight minutes.
They did it in a lab setting without music or other people around. So they think the effect might be even more dramatic in loud, crowded places like bars. The one time it didn't have an effect was when the two people already knew each other. Friends tended to move closer together in the room over time, even when they weren't drinking.