Drunk

Forgotten War Heroes Who Changed The World - The Fat Electrician - #1165

Modern Wisdom, 19 October 2026. The book comes up at 2 hr 16 min in.

The speaker cites a story from Edward Slingeland's book about how generals in some armies encouraged soldiers to drink together before battle. The book argues alcohol works as a group-scale truth serum: it suppresses the prefrontal cortex, making people worse at lying while simultaneously improving their ability to detect deception in others—an asymmetry that made communal drinking an effective pre-combat bonding ritual.

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