Why You Think Vodka Red Bull Gets You Drunker Faster

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Ah, the vodka Red Bull. It has quite the reputation of giving us our tipsy wings faster than other typical bar options. But are the intoxicating effects of this libation really that powerful? Marketing researchers from Paris’s INSEAD business school and the University of Michigan decided to find out.

The verdict: it has a lot to do with what you believe will happen. The forthcoming study from the Journal of Consumer Psychology monitored the behavior of 154 young, heterosexual Parisian men who were all served the same exact drink — a vodka Red Bull with juice — but given different descriptions about their cocktail. One group received a “vodka-Red Bull cocktail,” another received a “vodka cocktail,” and the third received a “fruit juice cocktail.”

All participants consumed their drinks and then performed three different tasks. The first was playing a gambling computer game that awarded them money each time they chose to inflate a balloon, but also took all their money if the balloon popped. The second was looking at photos of 15 women and determining whether they think they’d land a phone number if they approached them in a bar. And the third was filling out a survey about how drunk they felt during the experiment and how long they felt it would take them to sober up enough to drive home safely.

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Despite the fact that every guy drank the same drink, the group of men who were told they were drinking a “vodka-Red Bull cocktail” proved far more aggressive with the gambling game and extra confident in their abilities to score more phone numbers. And, interestingly, they said that they would wait the longest out of the entire study group to get behind the wheel of a car. (So at least their assumed intoxication led to one good decision.)

“These effects were stronger for people who believe that energy drinks boost alcohol intoxication, and who believe that intoxication increases impulsiveness, reduces sexual inhibition, and weakens reflexes,” the researchers wrote in the study.

Now, who’s to say if this vodka Red Bull placebo effect works the same with the ladies as it does with the gents. But since previous research does indicate just how potent (and dangerous) alcohol-energy drink elixirs can be, it’s probably for the best that people approach this drink choice with some self-awareness.