When Gueguen et al. manip­u­lated the music vol­ume in a bar in the west of France, their sus­pi­cions were con­firmed: louder vol­umes cor­re­late with higher alco­hol con­sump­tion.

[T]urning the music up so loud that peo­ple are forced to shout at each other doesn’t have quite the same ben­e­fi­cial effect on social inter­ac­tions. Because every­one is shout­ing, the bar becomes even nois­ier and soon peo­ple start to give up try­ing to com­mu­ni­cate and focus on their drink­ing, mean­ing more trips to the bar, and more regrets in the morning.

Now I’ve got a good excuse for those hang­overs: the psy­chol­o­gists made me do it.

via Mind Hacks