In 1958, Dr. Leon A. Greenberg of Yale University's Alcohol Center and Laboratory of Applied Biodynamics created a test designed to study the relationship between beer and stress. Greenberg built a device "similar in principle to the lie detector" that would allow him to measure "emotional tension."
He assembled a group of male volunteers in an "air-conditioned, sound-proofed room," served them bottles of 4.3% beer (no word on the brand he used), and asked the men to sort and count packs of cards as they drank.
Greenberg used various noise-makers, including an electric horn, to induce "emotional tension" in his subjects.
Six ounces of beer reduced the men's "tension level" by 13%. Twenty-four ounces reduced it by 37%. Greenberg found no evidence that the men were intoxicated nor did beer consumption affect the speed or accuracy at which they sorted the cards.
He concluded that the "social use of beer may serve an important role in blunting the excessive strain of ordinary life."
Hey, the guy was a professor at Yale. If he says it's true, it must be, right?
Source: "Prosit!" in Newsweek, February 3, 1958, p. 56.