Psychologists may have finally worked out why a few drinks can reduce your normally composed friends to raving lunatics while others seem like they’ve been drinking tap water all night.
Their new study’s broken down the characteristics that people broadly show when they’re drunk into four categories called Ernest Hemingway, Mary Poppins, Mr Hyde, and The Nutty Professor, The Independent reports.
The majority of people who took part in the study fell into the ‘Hemingway’ group, and did not dramatically change when drunk.
Meanwhile those who took after the fictional nanny ‘Mary Poppins’ were highly agreeable when sober and became more outgoing after a drink, making them practically perfect in every way.
Researchers said:
The Mary Poppins group of drinkers essentially captures the sweet, responsible drinkers who experience fewer alcohol-related problems.
On the other hand those who get more violent after a drink were identified with ‘Mr Hyde’, and this group was described by researchers as ‘less responsible, less intellectual, and more hostile when under the influence of alcohol’.
Finally there are ‘the Nutty Professors’ who are the most shy when sober, and experience the biggest boost in extraversion when drunk but become far less caring about things.
For the study researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia asked over 360 participants, equally split between men and women, to take a personality test twice, once when sober and once when drunk.
Researchers behind the study published in the ‘Addiction Research’ and Theory journal found that almost a quarter of participants were Mr Hydes, while four in ten were Hemingways.
Maybe if you know you’re a Mr Hyde this is a good excuse to have one less drink on a night out…
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.