# Binge Drinking and Empathy

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/binge-drinking-and-empathy/920558>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 14, 2020, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/binge-drinking-and-empathy/920558 "2020-09-14T11:34:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2020, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/binge-drinking-and-empathy/920558/3 "2020-09-14T21:09:51Z")

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I’d also question the direction of cause and effect. Does binge drinking cause reduced empathy, or does reduced empathy (AKA feeling especially sorry for yourself vs. for others) cause binge drinking?

Note also there’s really two very different sorts of binge drinking.

The “wild college party everybody’s having fun laughing and carrying on” binge drinking and the “I’m gonna get good and drunk to drown my sorrows” binge drinking. Two utterly different mental states on the part of the drinker, probably with very different causes and very different effects.

cf:

> [@I'm getting drunk today](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-drunk-today/919942):
>
> Just cause I feel like it. I started with orange flavored vodka at 8:00 am and told myself that it was close enough to orange juice to not matter. I might need better reasoning for the tequila at 9:00 am. Any suggestions?

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