A study conducted by the University of Cambridge has revealed that serving wine in a larger glass will make people drink faster and thus consume more wine.
The theory was tested in a Cambridge pub over a period of 16 weeks and was funded by the UK Department of Health. It had the bar give out its 125ml and 175ml wine servings, which were usually poured into glasses that had a capacity of 300ml, in 250ml and 370ml size glasses instead.
By the end of the trial, it was found that customers drank 10 per cent more wine if they had been served with the larger glass rather than the pubs regular smaller one. However, no connection was found between drinking from the smaller glass and drinking less wine.
Dr Rachel Pechey from the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at Cambridge said “We found that increasing the size of wine glasses, even without increasing the amount of wine, leads people to drink more. It’s not obvious why this should be the case, but one reason may be that larger glasses change our perceptions of the amount of wine.”
Professor Theresa Marteau, director of the Unit added “This suggests that avoiding the use of larger wine glasses could reduce the amount that people drink”. The use of larger glasses when serving wine is common, as they are better at aerating the contents of the glass.
