Binge drinking ‘contagious among partners’

On an average,the couples in the study were dating for close to 2 years.

Over a 28 day time frame,researchers were able to predict one partner’s binge drinking based the other partner’s binge drinking.

“In some respect this is a cautionary piece of research. Pick your friends and lovers carefully because they influence you more than you think,” Simon Sherry,assistant professor in the Department of Psychology,Dalhousie University,Halifax,N.S,said.

“We’re not so naive as researchers to think students are going to walk away from binge drinking. But our study shows there’s a large majority of students who form romantic partnerships where alcohol is a regularly occurring theme,” Sherry added.