Does Alcohol Make You More Popular? Binge Drinkers Take the Social Spotlight

If you want to become popular, have another beer?

According to a new study published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, a successful key to the heart of peers comes with another swig of alcohol.

Researchers analyzed the drinking habits of 357 young adults in Toronto, examioning their drinking habits from May 2012 to July 2012.

Participants were asked to report how often they binged on alcohol, the number of drinks they typically consumed, how often drinking episodes took place and how much their drinking behaviors influenced those around them.

Findings revealed that, particularly for men, heavy drinkers were more respected than those who drank less or did not indulge in alcoholic beverages, at all.

Study findings also revealed that those who could drink the most during a binge episode were typically given the highest social status.

"More consumption during heaviest drinking occasion also predicted higher status," researchers noted, via the Daily Mail. "Further, for both men and women, drinking more than one's peers during one's heaviest drinking occasion in the past year was also associated with higher status.

"These findings suggest that higher social status is associated with riskier drinking patterns and have important implications for prevention programming," they concluded. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that close to one in six U.S. adults engage in binge drinking; that's drinking more than four times a month with about eight or more drinks per binge.

Though the problem is typically more common among younger adults between the ages of 18-34, it has also been found to affect older individuals, as well.