--- title: Here Are the Four Types of Drunks, According to Science description: Researchers have published a study contending that there are four kinds of drunks: Mary Poppins, Nutty Professor, Mr. Hyde and Hemingway canonical: https://time.com/3962251/four-drunk-types-ernest-hemingway-mary-poppins-nutty-professor-mr-hyde/ author: Alissa Greenberg article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-17T08:25:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:20.356Z og:title: Here Are the Four Types of Drunks, According to Science og:description: Are you a Mary Poppins, a Mr. Hyde, a Nutty Professor, or an Ernest Hemingway? og:url: https://time.com/3962251/four-drunk-types-ernest-hemingway-mary-poppins-nutty-professor-mr-hyde/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1170dad4de736509/69885d9f524fc0643ddf3dca/poppins-hemingway.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Ernest Miller Hemingway og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here Are the Four Types of Drunks, According to Science twitter:description: Are you a Mary Poppins, a Mr. Hyde, a Nutty Professor, or an Ernest Hemingway? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1170dad4de736509/69885d9f524fc0643ddf3dca/poppins-hemingway.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here Are the Four Types of Drunks, According to Science > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=b9ef66ff-4f10-4d76-b8b1-1f3868658009&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: This Type of Alcohol Makes You Feel Sexy, According to Science [Watch (HLS stream): This Type of Alcohol Makes You Feel Sexy, According to Science](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2cLAha1L.m3u8) (1:59)  _Published 2017-11-22. If you’re trying to wind down after a long day, wine may help you relax, a new study suggests. But if you’re more in the mood to feel sexy and confident, order spirits instead._ by [Alissa Greenberg](https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/) ## Alissa Greenberg Jul 17, 2015 8:25 AM UTC  Undated file photo of writer, journalist and American war correspondent, Ernest Hemingway. Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins in the 1964 film. Undated file photo of writer, journalist and American war correspondent, Ernest Hemingway. Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins in the 1964 film. Getty Images, Walt Disney by [Alissa Greenberg](https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/) ## Alissa Greenberg Jul 17, 2015 8:25 AM UTC You know when you’re out with your friends at a bar, and you’ve all had the same amount to drink, yet one friend is giggling uncontrollably, another is telling a hilarious story to a group of strangers, a third is picking a fight with the bouncer, and the last is talking to the bartender as if those four Jägerbombs never happened? You might have wondered, well, what’s up with that? Science to the rescue. Psychology researchers from the University of Missouri at Columbia have [published](http://informahealthcare.com/doi/pdf/10.3109/16066359.2015.1029920) a study in _Addiction Research & Theory_ attempting to bring the conventional wisdom that there are many distinct ways to be drunk to its logical, scientifically-based conclusion. Their study, which involved 374 undergraduates at a large Midwestern university, drew from literature and pop culture in order to conclude that there are four types of drinkers: the Mary Poppins, the Ernest Hemingway, the Nutty Professor and the Mr. Hyde. The first and largest group — about 40% — was the Ernest Hemingways. Named for the writer who famously boasted that he could “drink hells any amount of whiskey without getting drunk,” Hemingways do not exhibit any major changes in personality when they transition from sober to drunk, the study contends. In contrast, Mary Poppins drinkers follow the “practically perfect in every way” description Poppins bestows on herself in the 1964 movie: they are already outgoing types who somehow get sweeter and happier with alcohol. After that come the Nutty Professors, named for the chemically-altered academic with a second personality immortalized by Eddie Murphy. They, the study says, are natural introverts who shed their inhibitions with special vigor when they drink, showing a flashier and more social side. And, lastly, there are the Mr. Hydes: the evil-twin drinkers who are, according to the study, “particularly less responsible, less intellectual, and more hostile when under the influence of alcohol.” The study authors hope to use these categories to tailor future alcoholism interventions to particular personality types. Meanwhile, you can use them to take bets on how many beers in your Nutty Professor friend will have had enough to start flirting with that brunette by the jukebox. Read more about the study [here](http://informahealthcare.com/doi/pdf/10.3109/16066359.2015.1029920). ## Transcript [00:00] ( Music ) [00:16] [ MUSIC ] [00:32] [ MUSIC ] [00:48] [ MUSIC ] [01:04] [ MUSIC ] [01:20] [ MUSIC ] [01:36] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3962251/four-drunk-types-ernest-hemingway-mary-poppins-nutty-professor-mr-hyde/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3962251/four-drunk-types-ernest-hemingway-mary-poppins-nutty-professor-mr-hyde/"},"headline":"Here Are the Four Types of Drunks, According to Science","datePublished":"2015-07-17T08:25:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:20.356Z","description":"Are you a Mary Poppins or a Hemingway?","url":"https://time.com/3962251/four-drunk-types-ernest-hemingway-mary-poppins-nutty-professor-mr-hyde/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Food & Drink","Alcohol","study","Science"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1170dad4de736509/69885d9f524fc0643ddf3dca/poppins-hemingway.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alissa Greenberg","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1170dad4de736509/69885d9f524fc0643ddf3dca/poppins-hemingway.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ernest Miller Hemingway","caption":"Ernest Miller Hemingway mary poppins","creditText":"Getty Images, Walt Disney","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3962251/four-drunk-types-ernest-hemingway-mary-poppins-nutty-professor-mr-hyde/","name":"Here Are the Four Types of Drunks, According to Science"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Type of Alcohol Makes You Feel Sexy, According to Science","description":"If you’re trying to wind down after a long day, wine may help you relax, a new study suggests. 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