Beer for the blues and wine for when you’re feeling fine?

Be it spirits, beer or vino, your favourite boozy bevvy is having a bigger impact on your mood than you might initially think, according to new research published in the British Medical Journal.

Scientists anonymously surveyed 30,000 18-34 year olds from 21 different countries to try and find out what effect different types of alcohol had on their mood and the results are in:

Spirits
Out of all the types of alcohol included in the survey, spirits were found to bring about the most negative effects on its consumers. Rum, vodka and gin were strongly associated with feelings of aggression, illness, sadness and restlessness. However, it was discovered that any feelings of anger or aggression were more notably experienced by males, whereas women reported that sipping on spirits made them feel either tearful or sexy – talk about conflicting. But it’s not all doom and gloom in the spirit world; vodka, gin and rum turned out to be the most energy and confidence boosting cocktails of the bunch, with more than half of all respondents admitting to feelings of Dutch courage.

Red wine
Red wine, a particular favourite amongst the older women in the group, was found to be the beverage most closely linked to feelings of lethargy, drowsiness and relaxation – especially in comparison to white wine. 52.8% of respondents labelled wine as the most calming alcoholic drink. As well as this, over a quarter of respondents also reported that their favourite vino often left them feeling a little bit frisky, if you know what we mean. *wink, wink*

Beer
Beer followed closely behind red wine when it came to relaxation rankings in the survey but fell flat on the sexiness score. Only a mere 19% of respondents said that beer left them feeling in the mood despite admitting that a pint or two did make them feel more sociable that usual.

The findings of the study, although interesting, are far from a definitive guide on how your handle your booze or your mood. It’s important to remember that so far, the research only tells us about individual’s emotional association with certain drinks, not the reasons behind the psychological and emotional changes.

Results varied greatly between age clusters and genders but scientists are hoping that through further research, this new study could possibly help to shed some light on the reasons behind different people’s alcohol dependency, by better understanding their emotional relationship with different alcoholic drinks.

Photos: Pinterest.

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.