Bigger wine glasses make you spend and drink more, study finds

Drinkers served wine in a large glass will consume more alcohol and spend more money, a new study has suggested.

To uncover whether serving wine in larges glasses affected how people drank, researchers from the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Cambridge carried out a study in a local pub.

As part of the research, bar staff swapped smaller glasses for larger containers to serve standard 175ml portions of wine.

During the experiment, wine was service in one of three glass volumes: 300 ml, 250 ml a larger 370ml, for two weeks at a time over a period of 16 weeks.

At the end of the test, the pub reported a 9 per cent spike in sales when larger wine glasses were used.

Theresa Marteau, director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit who led the research, told The Wall Street Journal that while the study was small, the study suggests “something is going on.”

She surmised that customers may have been drinking more because their judgement of the amount they were drinking became skewed, and they therefore ordered more wine and or drank faster.

Professor Marteau now hopes to expand the study in several pubs, bars and restaurants in the UK.

If significant results are returned, the research could help to reduce alcohol-related crime and health issues.

The study offered similar findings to a previous paper which showed that drinkers gave themselves larger servings of wine when pouring alcohol into a wider glass, when they held the glass in their hand while pouring or when the drink matched the colour of the glass.

Enlisting the help of 73 students, scientists from Iowa State and Cornell Universities found that subjects gave themselves 11.9 per cent more wine if they usd a wider a glass, and drank 12.2 per cent more if they held the glass while pouring, The Daily Express reported.