‘Beer-Goggle’ Defense Is No Excuse
A new study from the University of Leicester may have some men thinking twice before engaging in inebriated sexual escapades.
Researchers examined the responses of 240 people to computer-altered images of young females intended to be 13, 17 or 20 years old. Half of the participants had consumed alcohol while the other half was entirely sober.
The results of the study, published in the most recent edition of the British Journal of Psychology, showed that nearly all of the participants overestimated the age of the girls in the images, regardless of whether or not they had been drinking.
The researchers are putting the study forward as evidence that men engaging in sexual activities with minors should not be allowed to use the “beer goggles” defense as an excuse for illicit conduct.
The notion of “beer goggles” ““ better known in academia as “alcohol myopia” ““ was first identified by psychologists in the early 1990′s. The phenomenon itself, however, is likely as ancient as civilization itself.
Dr. Vincent Egan, the psychologist in charge of the project, said that he decided to investigate how drunken and sober men respond to different images of women after encountering several cases where men had used the “beer goggle” excuse as a legal defense.
Of the 240 male and female participants ranging in age from 18 to 70, half were tested sober while the others were first allowed to go into a bar for a few drinks. Those in the drinking group then had their blood alcohol levels checked; a third of which were, by legal standards, drunken.
Prior to examining the participants, Dr. Egan’s team had taken pictures of a 17-year old girl which they then manipulated with a computer program to produce an image of how the girl would look at 13 and 20 years old. Some of the original pictures of the 17-year old girl were also digitally modified to make it look as though she were wearing make-up.
Both groups of participants were then asked to approximate the age of the girl in the different pictures.
The results showed no statistically significant different in age estimates between the intoxicated group and the sober group. There was, however, an average overestimation of the girl’s age by participants in both groups.
“Even at considerable levels of drunkenness, males are not disproportionately impaired in estimating the age of made-up immature female faces,” said Dr. Egan. “The notion of “˜beer goggles’ is therefore irrelevant, and it might be there’s a pre-existing bias rather than having any links to drink[ing].”
Only the effects of make-up seemed to have a strong effect on people’s age-approximations, but even this was consistent between participants from both the drinking and non-drinking groups.
“There is a public perception that drinking alcohol affects how age is judged,” added Dr. Egan. “But people are always seeking excuses for the bad things that they do.”
Researchers believe that this study may be used by judges and juries to counter the argument put forth by many defense attorneys that men accused of having sex with under-age girls were impaired by the effects of alcohol.
“The results do not support the contention that alcohol consumed by the accused would lead him to judge the girl as appearing older. Therefore, the research does not support this defense” said Tim Valentine, professor of psychology at Goldsmith’s University in London.Â
Dr. Valentine did however acknowledge the effects of make-up in potentially skewing a man’s ability to accurately gauge a young woman’s age.
“The research [does] provide some scientific support for the defense that the accused believed that the girl was older than she actually was,” he said. “Whether this is actually a defense is an issue for a lawyer, not a psychologist.”
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