Beer goggles make the opposite sex desirable

London: It seems beauty lies very much in the eye of the `beer holder`, rather than the beholder.

A new survey in Australia has found that "beer goggles" really do make other people look more attractive.

The poll of more than 1,000 people, aged between 20 and 69 years, found that men and women`s judgement about the opposite sex was quite different to how they felt when sober, the Daily Mail reported.

Nearly a quarter of those who took part in the survey said they find others better looking after having a few drinks.

It was also found that a tipple or two also boosts their own self-confidence with one in four respondents admitting to feeling sexier after getting on the grog.

But just three per cent of women thought men who had had a few drinks were attractive, while less than 10 per cent of men said females who had been drinking looked good.

The findings come on the back of a similar study by Bristol University, which involved male and female volunteers being randomly allocated either a drink of vodka and lime or a similar-tasting soft drink.

Half an hour later, they were asked to rate the attractiveness of 20 male and 20 female faces on a seven-point scale. Those who had been drinking alcohol scored the faces around 10 per cent higher than those who had not.

Researchers found as little as a pint and a half of beer is enough to make everyone seem more desirable.

Men are worst affected, with their vision distorted or their "goggles" lasting for as long as 24 hours after a heavy drinking session.

Experts believe that alcohol stimulates the striatum -an area of the brain that plays an important role in attraction.