Beer Goggles

“Beer goggles” is a slang expression for the blurred vision (after intoxication) that makes people more sexually attractive. An ultimate frisbee team was named “Beer Goggles” in 1984. “He hated to hunt, to fit himself with beer goggles so everyone began to look fasty half an hour before the bar closed” was cited in a 1986 novel.
 
Several research studies into “beer goggles” have had conflicting results. An August 2008 New Scientist headline was, “‘Beer goggles’ are real – it’s official.”  Another study provided the March 2013 The Huffington Post headline, “‘Beer Goggles’ A Myth, Researchers Say.”
 
A phrase similar to the term “beer goggles” is “Beer: Helping ugly people get laid since 1862.”
 
   
Wikipedia: Alcohol and sex
“Beer goggles”
“Beer goggles” is a slang term for the phenomenon in which consumption of alcohol lowers sexual inhibitions to the point that very little or no discretion is used when approaching or choosing sexual partners. The term is often humorously applied when an individual is observed making, or later regretting, advances towards a partner who would be deemed unattractive or inappropriate when sober. The “beer goggles” are considered to have distorted the “wearer’s” vision, making unattractive people appear beautiful, or at least passably attractive.
 
A study published in 2003 supported the beer goggles hypothesis; however, it also found that another explanation is that regular drinkers tend to have personality traits that mean they find people more attractive, whether or not they are under the influence of alcohol at the time.
   
11 July 1984, Winchester (VA) Star, pg. 34, col. 4:
WINCHESTER ULTIMATE FRISBEE TEAM
(...)
Beer Goggles
 
Google Books
Providence:
A Novel
By Geoffrey Wolff
New York, NY: Viking
1986
Pg. 62:
He hated to hunt, to fit himself with beer goggles so everyone began to look fasty half an hour before the bar closed.
 
Google News Archive
11 December 1988, Gainesville (FL) Sun, “Only a dweeb or a wonk would scope rad terms” by Richard Bernstein (New York Times News Service), pg. 3G col. 2:
Other examples of the impaired state so common on Saturday nights: beer goggles, for a loss of judgment due to drunkenness—as in, “I must have had beer goggles on last night to think he was handsome”—crispy, for extremely hung over.
     
Google Books
Slang U.
Compiled by Pamela Munro
New York, NY: Harmony Books
1990
Pg. 34:
beer goggles blurry vision resulting from too many drinks, which makes everyone of the opposite sex look very appealing.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Beyond beer goggles : interactive teaching methods for alcohol, other drugs and AIDS prevention
Author: Mark J Minelli
Publisher: Champaign, Ill. : Stipes Pub., 1994.
Edition/Format:   Book : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
The effects of alcohol on perceived attractiveness : beer goggles?
Author: Alexander Gregory Borun
Dissertation: Thesis (A.B., Honors in Psychology)—Harvard University, 1996.
Edition/Format:   Thesis/dissertation : Thesis/dissertation : English
 
Urban Dictionary
beer goggles
a female that is completely hideous, but lots better the drunker you get… she becomes beer goggles at the state where you are so drunk you actually want to fuck her
(...)
by joce Nov 10, 2002
 
OCLC WorldCat record
‘Beer goggles’ are real – it’s official
Author: Peter Aldhous
Edition/Format:   Article : English
Publication: New Scientist, v199 n2669 (200808): 12
Database: CrossRef
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Beer goggles: blood alcohol concentration in relation to attractiveness ratings for unfamiliar opposite sex faces in naturalistic settings.
Author: M Lyvers; E Cholakians; M Puorro; S Sundram
Edition/Format:   Article : English
Publication: The Journal of social psychology, 2011 Jan-Feb; 151(1): 105-12
Database: From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Other Databases: British Library Serials; ECO; Elsevier
Summary:
The popular notion that alcohol intoxication enhances perceptions of the physical attractiveness of the opposite sex has been inconsistently supported. The current study tested intoxicated and non-intoxicated persons of both genders in naturalistic settings after measuring their blood alcohol concentration (BAC) by a breath test. A sample of 80 heterosexual university student social drinkers was recruited at a campus pub and campus parties over a 3-month period to take a survey rating the attractiveness of unfamiliar faces of the opposite gender presented in photographs. Attractiveness ratings were positively correlated with BAC. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted on attractiveness ratings with independent variables of gender and BAC group, with three levels of the latter: non-intoxicated (BAC = 0), moderately intoxicated (BAC .01% - .09%), and highly intoxicated (BAC .10% - .19%). Both intoxicated groups gave significantly higher attractiveness ratings than non-intoxicated controls. The findings confirm the “beer goggles” phenomenon of folk psychology for both genders, although the mechanism remains unclear.
   
The Huffington Post
‘Beer Goggles’ A Myth, Researchers Say
The Huffington Post |  By David Moye
Posted: 03/05/2013 9:34 am EST |  Updated: 03/05/2013 9:34 am EST
You’re going to have to come up with a better excuse for sleeping with that person whom you wish you’d never met.
 
It seems that the old “beer goggles” excuse just won’t work.
 
A new study by the U.K.‘s Durham University questions the long-held belief that alcohol consumption makes a person drop their standards as to whom they’d drop their drawers for.
 
Study author psychologist Dr. Amanda Ellison said that alcohol doesn’t make people look more attractive, it just increases their level of lust.