Shine OnFood tastes sweeter when you’re in love, study claims
According to a recent study from the University of Singapore, not only are humans are hardwired to associate love with sweetness, but we even perceive the things we eat and drink as sweeter when we think about romance.
The study, published in the journal Emotion, conducted four experiments on different groups of volunteers, reports Real Clear Science.
The first experiment involved having volunteers rate on a scale of 1-7 how much a particular emotion -- love, jealousy, passion, sadness and betrayal -- is associated with a particular taste -- sweet, sour, bitter, salty and spicy. The second experiment asked volunteers, "If love were a taste, what taste would it be?" and had them write down at least two tastes that came to mind. The same question was asked for jealousy, sadness, betrayal, and passion.
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In both experiments, participants paired love with sweetness, while jealousy was most often coupled with sourness and bitterness.
In a third experiment, volunteers who had been encouraged to think about love rated candies significantly sweeter than those encouraged to dwell on either jealousy or a non-emotional topic. And in a fourth experiment, volunteers who had been encouraged to feel love rated water as sweeter than those who had been encouraged to feel either jealousy or happiness.
The reason we associate love with sweetness might have to do with how the brain is wired, says lead researcher Kai Qin Chan. Previous research shows the same area of the brain that is activated when seeing images of one's romantic partner is also activated when tasting sugar.
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"It is possible that when one experiences love, the anterior cingulate cortex would activate representations associated with sweetness, thereby eliciting sweetness sensations even without actual sweetness input," Chan explains.
The anterior cingulate cortex plays a role in decision making, empathy, understanding emotion, error detection, awareness and anticipating rewards.
What are your thoughts on the connections between love and sweetness? Have you noticed this association in your life? Tell us in the comments below.
