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British scientists known for their quirks have reported the results of perhaps the most brutal experiment yet. They asked the volunteers not to drink a single gram of alcohol for a month. And not just any month, but January!
Well, judge for yourself, is it a conceivable thing: not to drink anything in January? And the New Year? And is he old? What about Christmas? Well, and all the other days between these wonderful holidays? However, in fairness, it must be said that the British were not only psychologists-researchers, but also all the participants in the experiment. And in England there are no long January holidays, and our Christmas and the old New Year are not very familiar to them either.
On the other hand, the British are not even stupid to drink. According to the World Health Organization, the UK is among the top twenty most “drinking” countries in the world, in terms of per capita alcohol consumption per year (10,26 liters) ahead of, for example, Ukraine and not too far behind Russia (11,12 liters)1. In a word, in England they know a lot about drinking alcohol, and for a Brit to last a month without alcohol … As the character of a wonderful film said, this may not be a feat, but there is definitely something heroic about it.
Read more:
- How I gave up alcohol and what came of it
In a study done a year ago2, 857 volunteers took part. It is easy to guess that there were significantly more women among them than men: 608 against 249. Less than two-thirds of all participants reached the finish line – more precisely, 64%, the rest left the race (and this is without any old New Year, mind you!). And here, by the way, no difference was observed: proportionally, the proportions of men and women who violated the “dry law” were approximately the same. However, psychologists were not at all interested in the ability of the weaker and stronger sex to maintain sobriety.
All study participants answered three detailed questionnaires. They completed the first one before the start of the experiment, the second one immediately after it ended, and the third one six months later. This material was the main subject of the study. As it turned out, those of the participants who, in ordinary, everyday life, without any experiments, drank alcohol moderately enough, not every day and in small quantities, coped with the test most easily. However, this is hardly surprising.
Read more:
- How alcohol changes our behavior: 4 types of drunkenness
More interesting is another finding: even six months later, most dry January survivors reported that they had reduced their alcohol consumption overall. Cases when participants, having endured until February 1, immediately rushed to catch up, turned out to be extremely rare. This leads the study authors to suggest that a month of strict sobriety could help us reduce our drinking in the long term. And if this month turns out to be January … It’s a pity that the publication is a little late. However, it is not necessary to wait a whole year: you can try it in February, March, and April. Well, let’s not even talk about May.
1 http://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/gisah/consumption_adult/atlas.html
2 Richard de Visser et al. “Voluntary Temporary Abstinence From Alcohol During” Dry January “and Subsequent Alcohol Use”. Online publication on the website of the journal Health Psychology from 21.12.2015.