Holding a drink can make you look stupid

London, July 15 (ANI): Most people think that they look more intelligent when ordering or holding a glass of wine, but a new research says the opposite is true.

According to the research from the universities of Michigan and Pennsylvania, holding a drink shows how stupid one can appear.

Apparently, just standing holding a drink changes, for the worse, colleagues' and bosses' assumptions about your brain power. Researchers have called this "imbibing idiot bias."

"The results suggest holding wine can selectively reduce perceived intelligence," the Independent quoted the researchers as saying.

"They also suggest that imbibing idiot bias may be costly in professional settings involving alcohol," they said.

In one of the studies, men and women rated the intelligence of people holding a glass of beer, wine or water.

Results based on five studies involving over 1,300 people showed that the alcohol-holders were rated as significantly less intelligent.

In another, people were asked to rate a speaker's arguments when he or she was holding a beer or a soft drink.

Their arguments were viewed as less persuasive, and the speaker was seen as significantly less intelligent when drinking beer.

In a third study, 300 senior managers rated people being interviewed for a job over dinner. Interviewees could order wine or a soft drink.

The managers rated the job candidates as significantly less hireable when they ordered wine.

The findings will be published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. (ANI)