Nerve Endings Firing Away

A headline — drinking coffee makes you more open-minded — is bound to catch your eye especially if you are a regular coffee drinker. After I read the headline, I immediately thought that probably drinking coffee makes you more tolerant (of cultures, opinions, etc.). Possibly the fact that most of the coffee shops specifically corporate coffee outlets were based in the blue states might have led to the headline. See, I already have analyzed the story even before reading it but that can be misplaced as I found out. If you read the article, you come across these facts:

The coffee you drink as a pick-me-up in the morning could also make you more open to persuasion, researchers say; moderate doses of caffeine can also make you more easily convinced by arguments that go against your beliefs.

Volunteers who had consumed the caffeine drink were more likely to change their point of view than those who hadn’t. However, the more distracted subjects were, the less likely they were to have their views altered. This, say the authors of the study, supports the idea that better mental function — rather than better mood — is the reason that coffee could make a person more easily persuaded, because the volunteers were only more open to persuasion when they could concentrate on and assimilate the persuasive argument.

Now, you are confused; the headline suggested that effects of coffee might be positive when it fact, after reading the story, they can be negative especially for people in business. Actually, drinking coffee might put you at a disadvantage at the negotiating table. However, as the article also states that “the compound [in coffee] primes people to agree with statements that go against their typical views because it improves their ability to understand the reasoning behind the statements.” Now, this might in fact be a good thing especially if you are trying to learn something. Your brain doesn’t offer resistance from prejudiced and preconceived notions and you tend to “see the light” more effectively.
Thus, drinking coffee might be detrimental before you go into a meeting but advantageous if you are going into a classroom. Remember that next time you pick up a Grande Coffee of the day from Starbucks. Otherwise forget that you ever read this post.

Update: On a related note, coffee is found to counter the harmful effects of alcohol:

A large study found that one cup of coffee per day cut the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis by 20 percent. Four cups per day reduced the risk by 80 percent.

So, moral of the story: drink alcohol but drink more coffee.