We all know the story. It’s 1:30am and almost closing time at the bar. You see the girl from earlier in the night sitting across the room. But now that it’s time to go, she’s looking a lot better than you first thought. Do the girls really get prettier at closing time?

James Pennebaker investigated the relationship between decision time and attractiveness to see if as closing time approaches, members of the opposite sex become more attractive. He surveyed different people at three different times of the night at a bar. They were asked to rate people of the opposite sex and of their own sex on attractiveness. The study found that people of the opposite sex became more attractive as closing time approached, but not people of the same sex. It appears that this “closing time effect” is actually true. As time to choose one’s partner for the evening draws near, the discrepancy between what is attractive and what is not attractive is reduced. This means that our ability to determine who we really feel is attractive only gets worse throughout the night.

Scott Madey and colleagues replicated this study, and this time they noted whether the bar-goers were currently in a romantic relationship or not. They found that only those not currently in a relationship showed this “closing time effect” and rated opposite-sex people significantly more attractive at the end of the night. This effect was found for both men and women, and yes, alcohol consumption was controlled. The important implication of these findings is that those who should be the most discriminating when choosing a partner (i.e., the single people) are actually the ones more likely to make unwise and regrettable choices at the end of the night. The effect of time pressure on perceived attractiveness only affects those people with the goal of finding a partner. Thus, your best wing man may be your buddy that is currently in a relationship, as he does not fall victim to the “closing time” goggles.

Further Reading:

Pennebaker, J. W., Dyer, M. A., Caulkins, S., Litowitz, D. L., Ackerman, P. S., Anderson, D. B., & McGraw, K. M. (1979). Don’t the girls get prettier at closing time: A country and western application to psychology. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 5, 122-125.

Madey, S. F., Simo, M., Dillworth, D., Kemper, D., Toczynski, A., & Perella, A. (1996). They do get more attractive at closing time, but only when you are not in a relationship. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 18(4), 387-393.