Keep A Tighter Grip On Your Wallet In Loud Restaurants

According to research rounded up over at website The Daily Beast, loud and fast music at restaurants makes people eat faster and drink more.

In the mid-1980s, researchers at Fairfield University demonstrated that people increased their rate of chewing by almost a third when listening to faster, louder music, accelerating from 3.83 bites a minute to 4.4 bites a minute. Stoked with data of this nature, chain restaurants, such as Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Grill, developed computerized sound systems that were preset to raise the tempo and volume of music at hours of the day when corporate wanted to turn tables.

And a study completed in the summer of 2008 in France found that when music was played at 72 decibels, men consumed an average of 2.6 drinks at a rate of one drink per 14.51 minutes. When the sound level was cranked up to 88 decibels, the numbers spiked to an average of 3.4 drinks, with one consumed every 11.47 minutes.

The takeaway: Nobody likes being manipulated by their environment, so just be aware next time you head to your favourite spot.

How Restaurants Get You Drunk [The Daily Beast via Consumerist]