Researchers based at University of Missori-Columbia have concluded, through a series of studies, that there are four general personalities that people adopt when they become inebriated.
For the research, scientists asked 374 women and men to describe their moods and personalities when sober and then again when drunk. The results were assessed against a personality index (of the sort that some companies use when hiring), using, as a summary provided The Drink’s Business notes, factors like: “extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, intellect and emotional stability when drinking.”
According to the published research, the outcomes were divided into four possible groups. For fun these were given the name of one of three fictional characters and author Ernest Hemingway thrown in to boot. Hemingway was known for his drinking prowess.Hemingway invented a number of cocktails, one of which was called “Death in the afternoon.” Here he wrote:
“Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”
The research found that the cluster they called “Hemingway,” was the largest group. According to Time magazine, this group is defined by intoxication-related decreases in conscientiousness and intellect that were below average. In the second group, the so-called “Mary Poppins” type, people was defined by being high in agreeableness when sober, and decreasing less than average in conscientiousness and intellect and increasing more than average in extraversion when drunk.
With the third group, dubbed “Mr. Hyde,” people reported larger drunk decreases in conscientiousness and intellect and smaller increases in extraversion. With the final clustering, “The Nutty Professor,” this was defined by being low in extraversion when sober, increasing more than average in extraversion and decreasing less than average in conscientiousness when drunk. This latter group showing the effect, perhaps, of “dutch courage.”
Of course with any such study there will be differences and grouping people into categories is inexact. Furthermore, different levels (and types of alcohol affect people in different ways.) Although fun in a way, the researchers want to use the information for clinical use, to help to make behavioral predictions. Drunkenness, with some people, can be associated with anti-social behavior and domestic violence and it is apparent that some people are more prone to aggression when drunk than others.
The findings have been published in the journal Addiction Research and Theory. The paper is titled “Searching for Mr. Hyde: A five-factor approach to characterizing “types of drunks.”
