Kiwis did not turn to the bottle to cope with the Christchurch earthquake in 2011.

New research from Lincoln University looked at buying habits of Cantabrians following the disaster - and there was nothing to show an increase in booze-buying.

Senior Marketing Lecturer Dr Sharon Forbes used barcode scanner data for the research, and found wine sales went down 20 percent in the week after the earthquake.

She said people were running on adrenalin, and probably had no need for hedonistic goods such as alcohol.