Consuming alcohol may make smiles more contagious for men, a new study suggests. The new research in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, indicates that drinking an alcoholic beverage can make men respond more to smiles from others within their social group. The findings indicate that among men, alcohol contributes to enhanced sensitivity towards rewarding behaviors such as smiling, and could help to expose risk factors that play a role in problem drinking among men.

Catharine Fairbairn, psychological scientist and lead researcher, of the University of Pittsburgh, said in a statement, “This experimental alcohol study, which included a social context, finds the clearest evidence yet of greater alcohol reinforcement for men than women.”

Prior research has indicated that men have a 50 percent greater chance of drinking excessively than women, with the majority of problem drinking occurring within social settings.

Fairbairn explains, “Many men report that the majority of their social support and social bonding time occurs within the context of alcohol consumption.” She continued, “We wanted to explore the possibility that social alcohol consumption was more rewarding to men than to women — the idea that alcohol might actually ‘lubricate’ social interaction to a greater extent among men.”

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, approximately 17 million adults ages 18 and older had an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in 2012. This includes 11.2 million men and 5.7 million women.