Exercise Now – Drink Beer Later? The Licensing Effect At Work!

The Yakima Valley has a worldwide reputation for our wine, our ciders, our Hops, and our craft beers.  We make world-class beverages and coincidentally, Today is National Beer Lovers Day!

National Beer Lovers Day

On September 7th, National Beer Lover’s Day celebrates the grains, hops and brewing methods across many eras. Beer and the process of brewing beer may predate known history. As varied as the methods, grains, and flavors, beer continues to change and evolve.  Whether while watching sports, relaxing with friends, cooling off after a hot summer day, we love our beer, and sometimes we even use beer as a "personal reward".

Have you ever heard of something called "the licensing effect?"  It's a psychological phenomenon that is basically a self-talk justification for one's own behavior.  A little context will help in understanding.

A study recently published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, from researchers in Texas, looked at data from nearly 40,000 healthy people ranging in age from 20 to 86 and found that moderately and highly fit people were far more likely to be moderate or heavy drinkers than less fit people.

Why might that be?  Would the "more fit" people be more likely to drink more?  Conventional wisdom would seem to suggest "No".  Heavier drinking is most often associated with the less healthy among us but that's where the licensing effect kicks in. We've all done it, we just never knew what to call it -when you feel like you’ve done something “good,” you reward yourself by allowing yourself to do something “bad.”

Numbers Don't Lie

A hard workout, weight training, running, setting and pushing past exercise goals, all on the way to becoming a moderately to highly fit person is hard work, sweaty, demanding work, and in your mind, you conclude -that kind of effort "deserves" a reward!  That's the licensing effect and the numbers back it up!   "For women, being highly fit more than doubled the od"ds of being a moderate or heavy drinker. For men, it increased the odds by 63 percent. 

So next time you're at the gym, look to the left and to the right.  If either or both of those individuals next to you seem to be working out particularly hard, they just might be doing so in order to enjoy a cold crisp Yakima Vally beverage!  Or maybe it's YOU!  Either way...Cheers!  Now give me 20!