Seems like every bar you go to does two things: they lower the lights and turn up the music. But why? The poor lighting is obvious—so you don’t have to see how ugly everyone really is. Probably. But the loud music is no accident.
It’s common knowledge among bar owners that talkers don’t do as much drinking as their silent counterparts. When you’re talking you’re not drinking. And when you’re not drinking, you’re not spending money. Simple enough. But is it true?
According to field studies conducted in French bars by Professor Nicolas Guegen and colleagues, the answer is yes.
By observing customers’ drinking habits over the course of three Saturday nights in two different bars, Guegen was able to validate the claim that loud music causes people to drink more. The study involved increasing music levels from their normal volume at 72dB (street traffic levels) to 88dB (lawnmower in your face levels).
In the process, Guegen observed that as the volume of the music went up, so did alcohol consumption. In fact, customers drank their beers down an average of three minutes faster at the higher volume level. This resulted in bar-goers purchasing, on average, one additional drink during their stay. Over the course of the night, this could result in hundreds of extra drinks sold.
Guegen and his colleagues took the study one step further to observe that faster consumption was a result of more gulps—not bigger gulps. So every time you went to say something to that hot girl on the dance floor you opted instead for another sip of your drink. Weak.
If you want to read more about people getting wasted to loud music or you think I made this stuff up check out this link: Source
I hate to state the obvious, but as the night wears on, bar patrons tend to become more intoxicated. And I know some people (myself included) tend to drink faster as they get drunker. So are customers drinking more because the music is louder, or would they just be drinking more anyways? To really test this theory, a study should be done where the music starts out loud, then gets quieter as the night wears on. If the speed of alcohol consumption decreases, this study might be valid.