Health & Medicine
Drunk 'Jibber Jabber': Sexes Use Different Words to Describe Alcohol Intoxication
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Jul 11, 2013 10:47 PM EDT
Drunk jibber jabber. Does it really mean anything?
A new study seems to think so. As for alcoholic semantics, depending on which sex is slurring his or her words, they may be spitting out different sterotypical slangs to symbolize the same feeling.
In fact, researchers found that men tend to exaggerate just how drunk they are, while women tend to use more polite terms like "tipsy" or "buzzed" to express alcohol consumption, even if they may have had a bit too much to drink. Men, on the other hand, love to use slang like "hammered," "trashed" or "wasted" to describe their blotto habits.
"Drinkers use a complex set of physical and cognitive indicators to estimate intoxication," said Ash Levitt, a research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, via the study. "In order to quickly and easily communicate various levels of intoxication, drinkers distill these indicators down into distinct sets of natural language terms for intoxication, such as 'tipsy' or 'wasted.' Understanding this language is important as these terms reflect levels of intoxication as well as whether individuals are accurately estimating intoxication levels when they use these terms."
According to the study, conducted in 2007, 145 undergrads were surveyed at Midwestern University and asked to apply drunken descriptions to a range of fictional vignettes featuring men or women.
The study showed that drunk slang may actually be used to hide signs of alcoholism, in some instances.
"One potential real-world implication that this research suggests is that women may be at increased risk for alcohol-related consequences such as drunk driving if they or their friends underestimate how intoxicated they are ... when, in fact, they are heavily intoxicated and heavy terms would be more accurate," said research scientist and co-author of the study Ash Levitt, via a press release.
Of course everyone needs a drink every now and then. And we've all used a word or two to describe a debacherous night on the town. More to the point, we certainlty don't want our dangerous lady friends taking the wheel after too many margaritas.
However, it is important to point out, via the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that men are twice as likely as women to binge drink; they're responsible for higher alcohol-related deaths and hospitalizations and this list goes on.
Maybe it's too much testosterone or maybe they really are "hammered." We're not sure.
What do you think?
More information regarding the study can be found in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
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First Posted: Jul 11, 2013 10:47 PM EDT
Drunk jibber jabber. Does it really mean anything?
A new study seems to think so. As for alcoholic semantics, depending on which sex is slurring his or her words, they may be spitting out different sterotypical slangs to symbolize the same feeling.
In fact, researchers found that men tend to exaggerate just how drunk they are, while women tend to use more polite terms like "tipsy" or "buzzed" to express alcohol consumption, even if they may have had a bit too much to drink. Men, on the other hand, love to use slang like "hammered," "trashed" or "wasted" to describe their blotto habits.
"Drinkers use a complex set of physical and cognitive indicators to estimate intoxication," said Ash Levitt, a research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, via the study. "In order to quickly and easily communicate various levels of intoxication, drinkers distill these indicators down into distinct sets of natural language terms for intoxication, such as 'tipsy' or 'wasted.' Understanding this language is important as these terms reflect levels of intoxication as well as whether individuals are accurately estimating intoxication levels when they use these terms."
According to the study, conducted in 2007, 145 undergrads were surveyed at Midwestern University and asked to apply drunken descriptions to a range of fictional vignettes featuring men or women.
The study showed that drunk slang may actually be used to hide signs of alcoholism, in some instances.
"One potential real-world implication that this research suggests is that women may be at increased risk for alcohol-related consequences such as drunk driving if they or their friends underestimate how intoxicated they are ... when, in fact, they are heavily intoxicated and heavy terms would be more accurate," said research scientist and co-author of the study Ash Levitt, via a press release.
Of course everyone needs a drink every now and then. And we've all used a word or two to describe a debacherous night on the town. More to the point, we certainlty don't want our dangerous lady friends taking the wheel after too many margaritas.
However, it is important to point out, via the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that men are twice as likely as women to binge drink; they're responsible for higher alcohol-related deaths and hospitalizations and this list goes on.
Maybe it's too much testosterone or maybe they really are "hammered." We're not sure.
What do you think?
More information regarding the study can be found in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone