Like Matt, I'm actually surprised that being drunk causes individuals to boost their evaluation of the attractiveness of members of the opposite sex. I hadn't thought the beer goggles effect was real -- rather, I'd assumed the effect was a mixture of lowered social reserve (and thus reduced fear of social opprobrium) and higher horniness, which combined to overcome qualms you'd otherwise have about a potential partner.
In fact, I'm still not convinced the effect is real, and wouldn't be surprised to learn that it's a function of people being more interested in hooking up with each other, and thus mistaking attraction for attractiveness. Or, as an alternate hypothesis, I think it's possible that we actually underestimate how attractive people are when we're sober, and are thus more concerned about what friends/bystanders/etc will think, or are overly invested in a rigid idea of our natural dating level.
