Drinking (A Little) At Work Could Actually Make You Better At Your Job
Errybody in the office gettin' tipsy.
By
12/23/2014 07:00am EST
| Updated December 6, 2017
Most corporate offices don't condone drinking on the job, but a case may be made for reconsideration. As it turns out, a little bit of alcohol really can support creative thinking.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that a certain level of inebriation can help get the creative juices flowing. In the study, participants whose blood alcohol level (BAC) was slightly under .08 percent performed better in a creative task than did their sober counterparts. (The intoxicated group, however, underperformed when they were assigned memory tasks.) The researchers determined that a person's "creative peak" is reached when the person hits a BAC of .075 percent.
Enter The Problem Solver, a new beer that aims to make it easier for drinkers to find their "creative peak." The drink comes equipped with a scale for drinkers to weigh themselves with; the bottle is labeled with an indicator for drinkers to determine how much they need to drink to get to their sweet spot. BAC changes from drinker to drinker -- while a heavier person tends to require more alcohol to increase his or her BAC, a smaller person may be deemed a "light weight." The Problem Solver simplifies having to do all the math. This drink has a 7.1 percent alcohol content, which is comparable to most malt liquors, and is taken into consideration when calculating BAC.
As for taste, the company describes the brew as a "handcrafted Indian Pale Ale brewed to tickle taste buds and brain cells. It has a refined bitterness with a refreshing finish." The product's slogan is smart, if lacking a little taste: "Finally, you can drink to solve problems," it reads on their website. They do warn that drinking more than the proper amount will not, in fact, enhance your creative thinking, but reduce it.
While the product appears to be a lot of fun and takes the guess work out of finding your personal peak point, you don't have to drink this particular beer to reap the benefits of being tipsy. While a person's blood alcohol concentration depends on more than just body weight (genetic makeup, medications and diet come into play), you can get a feel for your BAC by calculating it with a basic online tool like this one. Once you discover your optimal tipsy point, consider pouring yourself a glass in anticipation of your forthcoming raise.