The Science Behind Drunken Mistakes
By: Kelsey Ganes
Published: September 8, 2011

You know how it is - it seems like a good idea (or at least it didn't seem bad...) at the time... Well a recent study out of the University of Missouri seems to have cracked the code on drunken mistakes. We all know that consuming alcohol lowers inhibitions, but it also affects how we perceive our actions and their consequences. This recent study confirms that alcohol reduces the "alarm signal" within the brain that indicates that something went wrong; a mistake was made. However, in opposition to previous studies, this study shows that alcohol does not impact our awareness of mistakes, but it does reduce how much we care about those mistakes and their potential consequences.