The State of College Parties

"Most shocking to me was that women at themed parties kept dressing less and less," she said. "When I was in college there were themed parties, but I never saw girls just wearing lingerie or just a bra and panties, and that was pretty common at the themed parties I saw."...

"One of [the] most surprising things to us was the theme-party finding that women drank more at these," he said. "We started going to theme parties like toga parties or costume parties, with highly sexualized themes and with the women wearing not very much."

"What was surprising was it was one of few places that we know of that women actually outdrank men; we're not exactly sure why. It could have something to do with fact that they aren't dressed."

Not everyone feels the findings are a surprise. As for whether young women drink more during sexualized theme parties, Peter True, a senior at Boston University, said, "Definitely. They have to be that faded to go out wearing those ridiculous clothes, I'm 100 percent sure."

"There's a direct inverse relationship between how revealing their theme is and how drunk they get," he told ABC News. "At lingerie parties they drink the most. & They have to drink more if they wear less because they have to lower their inhibitions to be seen wearing that out."

The findings of the study seem to point to a combination of sexually charged themes and the presence of alcohol  an interplay that seems to result in a daringly permissive atmosphere.

The results of the surveys that the partygoers completed as part of the study showed that while 61.3 percent of respondents reported being at the party to socialize, and 45 percent reported having fun as a main motivation, nearly 40 percent of all respondents said they were at the party to get drunk. More than 21 percent said they were there to try to meet a sexual partner.

And the graduate students involved with the research say they feel college parties could be getting even sexier  and less inhibited.

"The most surprising thing that I've seen was how sexualized the theme parties are, kind of like the way Halloween parties have changed, the kind of costumes girls wear now," said Julie Ketchie, a doctoral student researcher who is now working with Clapp on similar research. "There are these girls walking down the street, and you can see their butts hanging out of their skirts."

"The theme parties, it's kind of like 'Spring Break: Girls Gone Wild' all the time."

-College Parties Getting Hotter, Boozier

Related;
The Science of Toga Parties