Men not looking for women who drink a lot

LOS ANGELES, March 9 (UPI) -- Some young women may drink to excess to impress men, but U.S. researchers suggest most college men are not looking for a woman to match them drink for drink.

Lead author Joseph LaBrie of Loyola Marymount University said the researchers invited the participating students, ages 18-25 at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles or the University of Washington, to complete an online survey during the 2007 fall semester.

The women answered several questions to determine, on average, how many drinks they thought a typical college man would like his female friends to drink at a typical event, as well as the maximum number of drinks they thought the men would like their female friends to drink.

The results showed 71 percent of women overestimated the men's actual preference of drinks at any given event by an average of 1 1/2 drinks. Twenty-six percent of women said men would most likely want to be friends with a woman who drinks five or more drinks and 16 percent said men would be most sexually attracted to a woman who drank that much alcohol.

"There is a great, and risky, disconnect here between the sexes," LaBrie said in a statement. "While not all women may be drinking simply to get a guy's attention, this may help explain why more women are drinking at dangerous levels."

The findings are published in the journal of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.