Young Adults Drink to Boost Their Chances of Hooking Up

The Social Lube Booze helps? What a shocker. Fernando de Sousa

In testament to a tried-and-true move in the human mating game, European scientists have noticed that young people in bars and nightclubs across the land are using alcohol and drugs to grease the wheels of foreplay.

The results of a survey of 1,341 European clubgoers, which were recently published in the journal BMC Public Health, indicate that a third of 16 to 35-year-old males and a quarter of females intentionally drink alcohol to increase their chances of sex. Drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and ecstasy were chosen to prolong or improve sex. It’s no accident, the research team concluded, that sexual activity often accompanies substance abuse.

“Trends in recent decades have resulted in recreational drug use and binge drinking becoming routine features of European nightlife,” said lead author Mark Bellis, a public-health researcher from Liverpool John Moores University in England.

The researchers also learned from their study cohort that coupling while drunk or high was strongly associated with morning-after reports of unsafe sex or feelings of regret. These negative outcomes, Bellis said, do not appear to discourage this mating strategy.