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Volume Up, Bottoms Up
By Ryan Sager
Maybe I’m a fogey (okay, definitely I’m a fogey), but I’ve always hated live music in restaurants and bars. I know restaurant owners think it’s super-awesome-fantastic ( “I have a mariachi band, surely profits are just around the corner!” ), but it’s always way too loud and ruins my meal — because, you know, I like to talk to my dining companions (usually).
So, I was glad to come across these studies and find out that at least restaurant and bar owners have a good reason for torturing me, not just with live music, but with loud music in general. It turns out — and maybe I’m stupid for not getting this earlier — that loud music basically stops you from talking, which only leaves you with one option: drinking more. (Well, or leaving.)
A 2004 study (PDF) found that higher sound levels lead to more drinking. A more recent 2008 study (abstract), conducted in a more natural setting, looked at what happened when the volume of music was randomly varied in two bars in France:
Sure enough when the music went up the beers went down, faster. On average bar-goers took 14.5 minutes to finish a 250ml (8 oz) glass of draught beer when the music was at its normal level. But this came down to just 11.5 minutes when the music was turned up. As a result, on average, during their time in the bar each participant ordered one more drink in the loud music condition than in the normal music condition.
The researchers also measured whether people were taking bigger gulps or more gulps. The answer was more gulps, which would seem to me to support the “It’s stopping you from talking” explanation.
To be clear, there is an alternate explanation: that the louder music is acting to arouse people, pushing them to drink more. One would probably need to study lone drinkers to get a better handle on causation.
So, the next time you’re out having a beer and some pointy-headed fellow is looking at you a little too much and making notes on a clipboard, just wave and carry on.
