Heavy drinkers lack sympathy — even when sober

HAVING too much to drink could affect drinkers’ personalities — even after they have sobered up.

Those who make a substantial dent in a bottle of wine during an evening may end up less sympathetic to others’ misfortunes, a study suggests.

Researchers looked at ‘binge drinkers’, who are generally defined as people who drink the equivalent of at least three quarters of a bottle of a wine in one sitting — and do so at least once a month.

Tested when sober, such drinkers reacted less quickly to the idea of others in pain, for example, after cutting their finger or dropping a hammer on their foot.

Researchers led by the University of Sussex recruited 71 people in the UK and France, around half of whom were classed as binge drinkers according to the definition.

In the study, the definition of binge drinking was based on how quickly participants said they finished alcoholic drinks in one sitting, and how often they had been drunk in the past month.

The study, published in the journal Neuroimage: Clinical, showed participants 64 pictures of people’s hands and feet.

Half the pictures showed strangers suffering an injury, and half showed them in no pain.

The group had to press one button if a picture showed a painful episode and another if they felt the picture did not.

Binge drinkers took 2.4 seconds on average to recognise the injury would hurt the stranger.

They were significantly slower than those who did not binge drink, who took 2.07 seconds on average to respond to perceived pain.

Brain scans suggested the binge drinkers’ brains had to work harder to process the assumption of pain. Theodora Duka, senior author of the study and professor of experimental psychology at Sussex, said the findings were important as ‘empathy is an essential part of social interaction’.

She said this may cause binge drinkers to ‘hurt people’s feelings or offend them’ by accident.