Whether we’re celebrating or commiserating, humans often use alcohol to regulate their emotions.

Champagne at a wedding elevates the mood, whereas whiskey after a heartbreak might help some people cope. But is this link between how we feel and how we drink a real one? And can we ever really know why we do the things we do?

Henry Austin of the CARE (http://www.psychology.uwa.edu.au/research#care) lab at UWA and the ADAPT (http://www.impliciet.eu/) lab at the University of Amsterdam is working to understand these ideas in his PhD.

Learn how some simple stockings can reveal the complexities of human motivation and whether anagrams inspire emotional drinking in this Particle podcast.

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