Could drinking make you more popular? Researchers say men and women who frequently drink have a higher social status

Researchers studied the drinking habits of people in Toronto

Found for men heavy drinking earnt more respect

For women, any drinking seemed to result in a higher social status

Drinking frequently could improve your social standing, researchers have claimed.

Researchers studied the drinking habits of people in Toronto, and said that in men in particular, heavy drinking appeared to earn them more respect.

For women, any drinking seemed to result in a higher social status.

Jon Hamm's character Don Draper in Mad Men famously drinks his way through the series. Now researchers say drinking frequently could improve your social standing, researchers have claimed.

THE COST OF BINGE DRINKING Drinking in excess kills about 88,000 people a year, according to the CDC.

It says one in six U.S. adults binge drinks about four times a month, consuming about eight drinks per binge. Although college students commonly binge drink, 70% of binge drinking episodes involve adults age 26 years and older. Binge drinking is associated with many health problems, including an increased risk of injuries, alcohol poisoning, STDs, unwanted pregnancies and liver disease.

Drinking too much, including binge drinking, cost the United States $223.5 billion in 2006, or $1.90 a drink, from losses in productivity, health care, crime, and other expenses.

Dr. Tara Dumas, a postdoctoral fellow at Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, studied 357 young adults in Ontario between May and July 2012.



They asked participants how much binge episodes - which included the number of drinks consumed, and how often these episodes happened - influenced their opinions of friends.

'We used field methodology to recruit young adults' natural drinking groups,' the team wrote in a paper be published in the October issue of Addictive Behaviors.

'For men, more frequent heavy drinking was related to higher peer-nominated status.

'For women, more drinking in general was related to higher peer-nominated status.'

The team so found that during binge drinking episodes, those who could drink the most emerged with the highest social status.

'For women, more drinking in general was related to higher peer-nominated status,' the researchers said.

'More consumption during heaviest drinking occasion also predicted higher status.

'Further, for both men and women, drinking more than one's peers during one's heaviest drinking occasion in the past year was also associated with higher status.'

The team say the researcher could influence alcohol awareness programmes.

