Despite all the bad press booze has received over the years—that it wreaks havoc on the mind and body, that it’s steadily driving thousands of Americans to early graves—few would be surprised that, in the moment, getting drunk is actually a lot of fun. The U.S. bought roughly 30.6 billion liters of alcohol in 2015 alone, and drinking has become so ingrained in the fabric of our society that the country’s leading beer purveyor, Budweiser, is shortening its name to simply “America” this summer.
Still, what was once merely guesswork has now been proven as a fact of science: drinking makes people happy.