E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
featurepics.com
You sweet thing, you.
Finally, there's some good news for people with a sweet tooth, and it comes in time for that sweet-gathering holiday, Halloween. People who prefer sweeter tastes seem to have sweeter dispositions, a new study suggests. So grab your favorite candy and read on.
Psychology researchers wondered whether there was any link between our taste preferences and personality traits. They reasoned that people tend to use "taste-related metaphors" in daily life, particularly sweet ones, like calling a romantic interest "sweetie," "honey" or "sugar."
We also use the term "sweet" to refer to someone who is kind, friendly and caring, and does nice things for others. Would individuals with a sweet spot for sugar truly show these sweet behaviors and characteristics?
Apparently, yes.
In one study, 55 college students rated their liking of 50 different foods from the five major taste types: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and spicy. They also answered questions about their agreeableness.
A liking of sweets was linked with a higher level of agreeableness, meaning a tendency to be friendly, cooperative, and compassionate.
In another experiment of 55 different undergraduates, students were randomly given a sweet food (milk chocolate), an unsweetened food (a bland cracker), or no food. Then they were asked to volunteer their time to help a professor.
Students given something sweet to eat were more willing to help another person compared to the other two groups. Perhaps a sweet tooth reveals more about your personality than you realize.
Researchers have yet to investigate whether this applies to other taste-related metaphors, such as whether sourpusses have more hankerings for tart tastes or bitter "hostile" people crave bitter coffee.
The research appears in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Readers, have you noticed any links between your taste preferences and your temperament?
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
I see Ignobel prize all over this study ...
N = 55 highlights your point exactly.
Maybe having something sweet elevated your mood making it more probable for you to help?
And who is more likely to choose something sweet for a snack?
They didn't choose their snack. They were given it.
I realize that. The article said (and you quoted):
Then you said:
And my question was, who (in the real world) is more likely to choose a sweet snack (and therefore experience this effect)? Hence the conclusion of the author, that people who like sweets may be sweeter.
You just quoted the problem with the experiment. They didn't let people choose. They were given their snack. It doesn't make sense to give someone something sweet, have them be more agreeable, and say "sweet people choose sweet snacks" because they did not choose their snack.
Had they laid out a tray of cookies, a tray of crackers, and a tray of nothing, and the cookie choosers were more agreeable I'd have a more open mind about the conlusion. But they didn't. And, to be honest, I find it hard to believe many people, grumpy or nice, would choose crackers over cookies. And you'd probably find more women choosing nothing over crackers or cookies due to dieting reasons. Or hunger levels, was this experiment made after lunch? Before?
There are far too many factors to conclude sweet people choose sweet things. Not to mention 55 people isn't a very big sample size to have a good conclusion.
Obviously the experiment is silly and 55 is too small a sample to know much for sure. But saying "cookie choosers" would be valid while "people with a sweet tooth" isn't seems like a strange quibble.
Their conclusion was that people with a sweet tooth are probably more sweet, since eating sweets made people sweeter... It's not hard to jump from "people who eat sweets" to "people with a sweet tooth".
I'm not saying it would be valid. At all. The whole 55 people, different factors issue. But I am saying it would make more sense than giving people a cracker then others a cookie instead of letting them choose for themselves.
At least we can agree the experiment is silly.
Any chance it was the sugar "high" that made them more willing to help? Perhaps they felt a bit of excess energy as a result of the sugar and it had nothing whatsoever to do with their personality traits.
So, what this study is saying we are all extra sweet salty and spicy, but we are desperately struggling to be bland - explaining the reason for the billion dollar diet industry.
Conclusion: This study is sourly lacking.
iono, this study left a bitter taste in my mouth...
What about tar balls? We got them tar balls everwhere down here and nobody eats them!
I have a sweet tooth, but I know plenty of others who do as well, and they are mean and greedy.
But only if you try and take their sweets.
SSSOOOoooooo
All Dentists are sweet?
I wish my sweet tooth would enhance a Santa Claus disposition instead of a Santa Claus physique.
I have to have candy, cake or cookies at all times around the house. And honestly I am a nice person. I am a starving working class citizen that helps others. How about that?
Sweets, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Sweet, salty, and spicy, what does it all mean?
Hahahaha!
They also answered questions about their agreeableness.
Most people I know, including myself, would consider themselves to be rather agreeable and nice. Asking others about the test subjects would have been better.
They also answered questions about their agreeableness...A liking of sweets was linked with a higher level of agreeableness, meaning a tendency to be friendly, cooperative, and compassionate.
Could this be the flaw in the study? For a person's taste preferences, asking the subject himself makes sense, but for a person's agreeableness, it's better to ask a wide sample of people who know him. A more accurate assessment could then be made.
Awesome. Finally a good excuse to be a pig!