If someone is wearing "beer goggles," they're said to be more likely to find other people, whom they wouldn't ordinarily find appealing, more attractive because they're drunk. Often, the term is used following a regrettable one-night stand.

A new study from researchers at the Stanford Prevention Research Center has found that beer goggles may not actually be a thing, but that another well-known, alcohol-induced condition – "liquid courage" – could be.

"The well-known beer goggles effect of alcohol does sometimes appear in the literature but not as consistently as one might expect," said Michael Sayette, one of the two authors of the study.

The researchers recruited 18 pairs of male friends aged 21 to 27 and had them attend two laboratory sessions where they consumed either alcohol (vodka and cranberry juice) or a non-alcoholic (cranberry juice only) beverage. In the alcohol-drinking session, participants drank up to a blood alcohol concentration of around 0.08%, the legal limit for driving in the US.