London South Bank university’s psychology department has developed a fake bar at a cost of £20,000 to help test reactions to alcohol in an authentic pub environment.
The room is located on the fourth floor of the university’s main block, with scientists using a number of different methods to monitor interaction and awareness in relation to alcohol and placebos of the substance.
The research is being led by the university’s head of psychology, Dr Tony Moss, who specialises in the cognitive side of addiction to help understand the start, continuation and offset of addictive behaviours.
The main idea behind the study is to help understand why and how people drink, with the room linked up to video cameras, allowing students in other rooms to study people's behaviour.
One of the aspects being monitored in the room is how much attention people pay to drink awareness campaigns. To observe this, participants will be asked to wear Google glass type equipment, which helps to keep track of where people are looking in the room.
Other methods of research include replacing alcohol with placebos, using a fruit machine to monitor risk-taking behaviour and wire loops to test hand-eye coordination.
There is also a jukebox, which will be used to investigate the types of music that encourage people to drink quicker.
Before being used, each method has been crosschecked by the university’s ethics department, while the free alcohol will only be dispended up to the current drink-drive limit to ensure safety.
