Semi-Blind Drunk?

Think you're fit to take the wheel after just one cocktail?

Think again. In a group of barely-buzzed people who were asked to count passes between basketball players in a video, about 82 percent failed to notice a person dressed up in a gorilla suit in the clip! Would you feel confident about your ability to drive if you noticed a stray dog, child, cyclist, or broken down car on the side of the road just 18 percent of the time? Didn't think so. Play it smart: Don't drive after even one drink.

Even a little alcohol exacerbates "inattentional blindness," a condition that makes it easy for you to miss something major (a deer) while you're concentrating on something else (a street sign). Now for the super scary part: Half of adults miss major objects in their visual field while sober.

In other words, the human mind can pay attention to only so many details at a time. If you're focused on one thing, you're likely to completely miss others. Add alcohol and you've got a bigger problem -- even if it's just a little alcohol. In the study that included watching the basketball video, the people who failed to notice the gorilla had a blood alcohol content of only 0.04 percent -- that's well below the legal limit in most states: 0.08 percent.

Driving home? Order a virgin margarita, or hand your car keys to a friend who prefers sparkling water to sparkling wine.

Reference
Blind drunk: the effects of alcohol on inattentional blindness. Clifasefi, S. L., Takarangi, M. K. T., Bergman, J. S., Applied Cognitive Psychology 2006 Jul;20(5):697-704.