What is “Broscience”?
When we have a few drinks to relax and unwind, we often tend to do it in the company of friends, work mates, and family. When a group of ‘blokes’ get together to swap a few stories, we tend to do a great deal of male bonding, which leads to a lot of reinforcement of behaviour. It doesn’t take much figuring out that when one man drinking alcohol shares a drink with friends, they are validating each other’s behaviour. We are validating that drinking alcohol with friends is okay. We are often validating that having a few too many drinks is okay. But these are examples of “Broscience” and these actions being validated are not necessarily okay.
Broscience originated in the weighlifting and bodybuilding industry, and is related to “peer group pressure” and “group think” by its definition. But Broscience is possibly a little more insidious because it takes root in maleness and the need to belong and is fuelled by testosterone and self esteem.
What is the problem with Broscience?
The problem is that all like to fit in with our friends, peers and family groups. It can be a compelling argument to join your friends at the pub after work. And it can seem impossible to say ‘no’ when offered a beer at a family BBQ. But as we all know, one thing tends to lead to another. And even when we don’t start out to drink too much, we can find ourselves having just one too many.
Broscience is part of a much wider problem
The problem with alcohol is that it is widely accepted across many societies. In fact, because alcohol is a legal and accepted drug in many societies, it has become an integral part of many cultures. Drinking alcohol has become a normal part of social interactions, family interactions, and all sorts of celebrations from births, weddings and funerals. A man drinking alcohol in these scenarios is seen to be doing the right thing. This common acceptance of alcohol is a combination of cultural acceptance and social acceptance that alcohol is a normal and acceptable part of everyday life. But this does not mean that it is safe to drink. Broscience, by it’s nature, tends not to take into account the long term effects of drinking alcohol. And the big risk with Broscience is that it does not take into account the addictive nature of alcohol.
Alcohol can have long term health risks
The problem with alcohol and Broscience is that men of all ages are putting themselves at risk from alcohol. A man drinking alcohol is exposing himself to a multitude of health risks. These risks include liver damage, brain damage, high blood pressure and onset of diabetes. These diseases are all familiar names, and we become desensitised to mention of them. But they are all life threatening. Each of these diseases can potentially take years off our lives. Furthermore, they can cause pain, debilitation and reduce our masculinity. Yet, none of these issues are addressed by Broscience.
Is it okay to be a man drinking alcohol if Broscience says it is okay?
There is no doubt that there are long term health implications caused by drinking too much alcohol. Alcohol is addictive. Withous a doubt, many of us can sympathise with someone who has succumbed to long term addiction caused by alcohol. So if we are aware of the dangers of alcohol, why do we continue to dance with danger? Surely in pub full of people with a fair amount of alcohol and Broscience being consumed, there must be someone who knows an alcoholic. It is likely that someone there has experienced or witnessed the devastating outcomes of alcohol addiction. But we choose not to say anything about it! We choose to fit in!
Binge drinking also has short term health implications
It is not just the long term health problems caused by alcohol that are the problem. In addition, binge drinking can cause short term problems. There are suspicions that the brain and the liver suffer from high levels of alcohol absorption. This is because binge drinking causes temporary spikes in the blood alcohol concentration (BAC). However, these short term spikes can be extremely harmful to our health. Unfortunately, Broscience is again at play when it comes to binge drinking. Binge drinking is often associated with groups of young (and middle aged) men, who urge each other to drink alcohol to excess. Furthermore, through peer pressure, they convince one another that it is fine to do so. Increasingly this is becoming a habit of women, also.
A lack of medical advice fuels a reliance on ‘Broscience’
Even though there is widespread alerts to the dangers of binge drinking, there does not seem to be enough recognition of the dangers. In other words, Broscience seems to take the place of recognised scientific advice. Peer pressure seems to overcome any warnings about the dangers of drinking alcohol to excess, and many people continue to put themselves at risk. Or maybe these risk takers have spread a culture of distrust with medical science. Or maybe it is a case of the “boy who cried wolf”, and these swashbucklers simply do not believe the warnings.
Belief in Broscience
What is happening is that many men are willing to believe in their friends opinions, rather than the warnings about alcohol. They rely on the stories at the pub, or the fact that everyone is drinking at a BBQ, or after work, that it is okay to have a drink and relax. But it is not medical advice, and what we see at the pub or at a family BBQ may not be the whole picture. Sometimes, it feels great to be the life of the party. But when the party is over, we still want to drink more. It can be difficult to enjoy a couple of drinks in moderation, and then decide to stop drinking. In fact it is one of the greatest jokes out there that “I will just have one drink”. I doubt it.
It can be hard to drink in moderation
We all know about the problem with trying to limit our alcohol consumption, yet we pass it off as a joke and keep doing it. Maybe Broscience could come up with an answer for how to drink in moderation? We live in hope!
Broscience is even used in alcohol advertising
And in case you don’t believe me about the relationship between alcohol and Broscience, it is even being used to advertise alcohol. In an effort to convince drinkers to change to a newly released alcoholic beverage, a group of drinkers is convinced to try something different. Peer pressure at its very best!
We need to minimise the risk of alcohol usage
Instead of encouraging people to drink more and more alcohol, a different approach is needed. We really need to try to minimise the habits associated with drinking vast quantities of alcohol. There are medical interventions for people addicted to drugs such as heroin, but not much support to overcome alcoholism. We need to continue the messages about the risk associated with drinking alcohol to excess. We need to correct the messages being conveyed by Broscience-type thinking, to create a more balanced discussion about the hard facts. Alcohol is responsible for so much pain, sickness and wasted opportunity.
Why do men believe in Broscience when it tells us that drinking alcohol is safe when it actually reduces our masculinity?
Click here if you want to discover how to stop drinking too much alcohol.
