“In Wine, There Is Truth” And A lot Of Other Things

It turns out, this common myth is complicated

In vino veritas, also written as in uino ueritas, is a Latin phrase that means “In wine, there is truth”, suggesting a person under the influence of alcohol is more likely to speak their hidden thoughts and desires.

I’ve often wondered if that’s true, as someone who has been known to overshare during conversations that take place after a couple of glasses of wine.

I can’t say that I’ve ever felt as if I let the cat out of the bag or said something had been deeply buried, loaded in the chamber waiting to be fired off, however. I guess I’m glad about that.

As far as In Wine There is Truth, I’m more in the camp of In Wine There Is Relaxation, which can lead to the type of oversharing I’m talking about.

Whether or not what you’re saying in a drunken state is a deep, hidden truth, an exaggeration for attention, or simply things you have never talked about and now feel freer to do so, seems to be up for discussion.

The point is if you’ve ever inadvertently blurted something out when tipsy and are now holding yourself hostage to those words, don’t. It’s worth understanding, you didn’t necessarily bare your truest of true feelings when you spoke, just because you had a couple of drinks in you.

The old adage, however, says that

“a drunken man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts.”

Not so fast.

When you drink, the GABA receptors in your brain and central nervous system are impacted. This can cause your motor controls and inhibitions to be impacted, which may lead you to talk about anything, respond without careful thought, or simply talk about things you may have kept more to yourself until now.

That said, it doesn’t necessarily mean that what you’re sharing is the truth. Those very same loosened inhibitions could also cause you to fabricate a few things or respond based on whatever you’re feeling in that moment.

With lowered inhibitions, you may become less able to keep yourself from saying something you’ve been afraid to say in the past. This is exacerbated by the socialization effect which could lead you to seek more attention, even at times exaggeration.

So it turns out, maybe what you’re saying is true, true in the moment, something you’ve never had the nerve to say, or a way for you to garner a little attention in the moment with some colorful stories.

It Might Be The Truth, But It Might Not.

Context, as in so many things, helps determine whether you’re saying something you mean. The fact that alcohol also overloads your working memory is also a contributor.

These factors affect how you rationalize your behavior and determine whether or not you’re out of line. So between your lowered inhibitions and personal rationalizations, it’s quite possible that you would say whatever is on your mind. Some things may be personal, or possibly something you’ve never talked about, but you could also blurt out a boisterous comment or, yes, even an exaggeration or little white lie.

So while alcohol can cause the revealing truths that may have otherwise been locked away, it’s not as simple as that. There is a lot of science that goes into the content and reasons for those conversations.

The lack of inhibitions can lead to the expression of long-repressed emotions that are very real, but it can also cause others to stretch the truth, or lie. Just because being drunk can cause you to be more open, it doesn’t necessarily mean what you’re saying is the truth.

Confusing, right?

Let’s complicate it even more.

Being drunk also leads to a reduction in the understanding of negative affect, or that certain words or actions may have negative consequences. A person with an inhibited negative affect says things without connecting them with possible results.

In fact, one study showed that the reduction in understanding negative affect is the largest influencing factor behind the lowered inhibitions. When this is going on, people aren’t associating anything they say with a possible negative outcome, they are just saying the words.

The Bottom Line

The answer to whether being drunk leads to more truth-telling lies mostly in how much and how often someone is drinking. Not surprising.

In one study, two groups of drinkers, light and heavy, were paired off to do Go/No Go tasks. Those tasks are based on moral, safety, or legal issues. The light drinkers demonstrated a moderate impairment to inhibition, while the heavy drinkers showed impairment to inhibition as well as working memory.

The hypothesis was that while light drinkers still use their working memory to rationalize doing or saying something, heavy drinkers must do that much more often, causing them to overload that function, making them unable to use good judgment for things that would normally be easy for them when sober.

For example, if you’re a light drinker, you probably won’t use a racial slur, because you wouldn’t in a sober state either. But a drunk person doesn’t always make the distinction, even when it is out of character to do so when they’re sober.

A slightly drunk person can still make some good decisions and separate the things they can and cannot do, rationalize what could go wrong, and consider the consequences, while a really drunk person cannot.

Belisa Vranich, a clinical psychologist who specializes in alcohol addiction says:

“People dredge up feelings and sentiments from somewhere deep in their brains, so what one says or does certainly reflects what’s going on deep down. There’s a lot of truth to that ancient Latin saying, ‘in vino, veritas.’ Alcohol can most definitely act as a truth serum — something that allows people to say what is truly on their mind.

Alcohol doesn’t actually speak for the drunken person, but gives the person the confidence to say things he normally wouldn’t.

There’s usually some version of one’s true feelings that come out when one is drunk,”

It seems as though there’s no solid proof that anything that is said or done in a drunken state is the absolute truth or an honest representation of your feelings.

Our human brain is complex. We draw our feelings and emotions from our vast life experiences. Adding alcohol or anything to the mix that impacts our comprehension and how we arrive at the words we choose or the actions we take, complicates things even more.

If you feel you may have crossed a line after having a few drinks, odds are pretty good that you did. So, go ahead and make amends or apologize if you need to.

By the same token, if you’re the receiver of some confusing comments made by someone who’s intoxicated, take those with a grain of salt. So many factors come into play, that it would be unfair to hold someone to account for those drunken sentiments and assume they are the truth.

For my part, I think I’m going to learn to sip my drink slowly, stay in the moment, and maybe listen more than I speak.

🎉 P.S. More musings on 🔥 🎧 The Badass Midlife Podcast 🎧 🔥

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