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The bigger the glass, the greater the desire for a drink
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Cambridge specialists together with their colleagues from the University of Bristol found out that the larger the glass, the more a person wants to drink. The scientists conducted their study in one of the Cambridge restaurants, where they observed visitors. The study involved a bartender at the restaurant, who poured wine into glasses of different capacities for visitors who ordered it, but the cost of the order was the same. Visitors were given the same amount of wine, but in glasses of different capacities - 250, 300 and 370 ml. As a result, the scientists found that people drank wine faster in larger glasses and ordered another portion; on average, visitors who were brought wine in glasses with a capacity of 370 ml drank 10% more, compared to visitors who drank from glasses of 250 and 300 ml.
According to experts, people who drank from larger glasses visually perceived less alcohol, which contributed to the desire to order another serving of wine.
Scientists assume that the discovered feature will allow a deeper study of the mechanisms of alcohol addiction development and, perhaps, the authorities will decide to legally prohibit the use of large glasses in restaurants and cafes in order to reduce the number of alcohol addicts. Alcohol abuse is a serious problem in many countries, alcohol in large quantities often provokes the development of serious diseases such as diabetes, cancer, liver dysfunction, so the new study is important for the health of all countries.
The research group plans to conduct a repeat experiment, but in several restaurants simultaneously, so that the results are more reliable.
It is worth noting that this is not the first study of this kind; scientists have previously found a connection between the size of a plate or glass and the amount eaten or drunk. As a result, the conclusions were approximately the same: the larger the dish, the more a person eats or drinks.
Researchers from the California Polytechnic University obtained completely opposite results, who came to the conclusion that a person eats less from a large plate and at a large table - but in this study, scientists used pizza slices of different sizes. According to California specialists, at a large table a person stops distinguishing between the sizes of pizza, perceiving everything as large, as a result, a smaller portion of food is eaten.
Alcohol, whether in large glasses or small shot glasses, still poses a health risk. In the UK, scientists have concluded that wine is more harmful to the body than vodka, despite the fact that the strength of the drinks is significantly different (wine has about 12%, vodka has 40% alcohol).
According to scientists, it is the different strengths of drinks that leads to the false idea that wine is less harmful, which is actually one of the reasons for the development of alcohol addiction. Many residents of Britain drink wine every day and consider it normal, it is possible that this attitude towards alcohol has led to the country taking 2nd place in liver cirrhosis.