[none_to_remain]

You have anything backing up the last bit? My intuition/life experience doesn't lead me to believe an alcoholic preferring whiskey is particularly worse off than an alcoholic preferring beer, nor that whiskey is more likely to lead one to alcoholism than beer. Claude surfaced this review tending to agree with me, with the exception of acute overdose being more of a risk with the hard stuff.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3888958/

[CerebralCerb]

Hard liquor is absorbed faster than beer which leads to a stronger rush effect. It's similar to snorting vs shooting cocaine. When the effect hits faster, the psychological association between the stimuli and the effect (sensitization) becomes stronger.

This effect has been demonstrated with rat studies using cocaine:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2005...

[antonymoose]

Why would liquor be absorbed faster than beer given the same route (drinking)?

[peterabbitcook]

Fick’s Law. The rate of absorption is proportional to the concentration gradient.

[timeinput]

It's easier to drink more units of alcohol faster when it's more concentrated, and not full of bubbles.

I don't think its so much that it's absorbed faster than it's just physically possible to drink 200 ml of liquor faster than it is to drink 1600ml of beer.

[eth0up]

Let's go Polymark on this one. We have a race to alcohol poisoning.

Alice gets ∞ of the Champagne of Beers. Bob gets one bottle of EverClear.

Ready. Set. Go

I think Bob wins.

One could also be obnoxious and argue that liquor is more easily concealed, transported, etc, therefore facilitating alcoholism more effectively by allowing a larger landscape.

But HN.

[triceratops]

I read the article and it's a bit tricky to tease out but the negative association with spirits does exist. To summarize:

1. The quantity of alcohol consumed per occasion is most strongly associated with harms.

and

2. "The more alcohol was drunk per occasion, the higher the proportion of it which was drunk in the form of spirits"

The choice of beverage and how much was drunk was more dependent on cultural, social, and other factors.

My intuition tells me it's physically more difficult to consume more alcohol from a lower-strength beverage.

[landl0rd]

My intuition tells me most people can't put down whiskey like they can beer. My guess is both of these are actual relevant things that affect behaviors, but I have no idea which is stronger.

[eth0up]

Your intuition needs to meet a Russian. Most whiskey, unless single cask/malt, is ~ 40%, same as vodka.