This got me thinking about an article in the FT that I read this summer, titled "Why drink is the secret to humanity’s success."
A summary of key points:
- The best predictor of happiness and longevity is the number of close relationships in a person's life. People with a good number of relationships are likely to be moderate drinkers; they're the type of people who will meet friends for a pint after work.
- Alcohol encourages us to open up and release endorphins "It isn’t just because alcohol causes people to lose their social inhibitions and become over-friendly with our drinking chums. Rather, the alcohol itself triggers the brain mechanism that is intimately involved in building and maintaining friendships in monkeys, apes and humans. This mechanism is the endorphin system."
- A study at the University of Oxford found that people who were regulars at a local pub were happier, more satisfied, and had more friends than both those who never drank and those who did not have a frequently visited local bar.
The article does not argue that alcohol itself is inherently beneficial. Drinking a glass of merlot alone in front of the TV, while perfectly enjoyable, won't bring you a lifetime of happiness. Instead, alcohol is a mechanism through which we forge meaningful relationships, and those are what make us happy in the long run.
So, on that note, who wants to meet up for a glass?
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