Your Wine Glass Size May Be Causing You To Drink More

In news that may be rather unwelcome for some wine drinkers (and welcome to others), sipping on wine out of a larger glass may actually be causing you to drink more than you think.

A study recently published in Scientific American sneakily recruited a bar to swap out, at regular intervals, the size of their customers' wine glasses for slightly larger or smaller versions.

After four months, the bartenders handed over their receipts and, lo and behold, the larger wine glasses resulted in customers drinking, on average, 10 per cent more wine.

In totally unrelated news, the bar involved in the study has now permanently switched to using the larger wine glasses.

While the research didn’t look at exactly why larger glasses led to drinking more wine, one of the study’s co-authors, Theresa Marteau, had a theory: A standard pour looks smaller in a larger glass.

And that, consequentially, tricks your brain into feeling justified in ordering a second (or third) glass.

In a similar study, oenophiles tend to get a little more generous with their servings of white wine than with red – about nine per cent more generous.

Again, it comes down to perception: red wine, compared to white wine, contrasts more noticeably against a clear glass, making it more obvious when the pour is on the heavier side.

With news that drinking red wine late at night may help you lose weight (and that red wine might also help keep you young), we’re leaning toward the slightly larger glasses ourselves…

Texf: Deirdre Fogarty, The Australian Women's Weekly / Additional Reporting: Sean Tan