Dr. Keith Humphreys

And if someone weren't doing it, it's like, why are you not...

So we're all going to be vulnerable and you're not and like, are you going to exploit us in some way or I'm going to say, you know, I think I hate the boss and then you're going to repeat that at work because you know, you're the one person sober enough to remember I said that.

I think that is a real thing that people have anxiety about.

Or I can imagine, you say, what if, you know, a man and woman are on a date and the guy keeps giving drinks to the woman and doesn't drink himself?

Like, you know, what is the natural thing to think?

Are you trying to get me drunk?

Are you going to take advantage of me because, you know, you're going to be with it and I'm not?

because I'm going to be drunk.

So those kinds of fears may be in the soup, but I don't think, you know, so maybe that's, you know, rational at some level, but I don't think that should drive our sort of routine social interaction with our friends.

It should just be a non-issue, you know, of what do you want and if you say I want sparkling water, I just give you a glass of sparkling water and don't say why haven't you, why aren't you.

drinking this intoxicating beverage, you know, you shouldn't need to explain it to me.

It just seems like a bad idea.

As women move into more professions that may have changed that norm of, you know, everybody goes out and gets drunk because the consequences aren't the same and, you know,

I know a lot of, you know, professional women, I don't want to do that, you know.

You know, I don't want to be around the boss when he's drunk, you know.

And so let's have a Christmas lunch together at work instead of, you know, drinks afterwards.

So I definitely see that.

I think in the dating, now, of course, I haven't,

thankfully had to worry about dating for 40 years.

But what I think most people would say is just the anxiety, you know, is intense for some people and alcohol is anxiolytic, right?