Guilt Enhances Pleasure of Eating Chocolates

A new study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago reveals that the very fact that eating sweet treats such as chocolate may not be good for health makes them more enjoyable for women. The researchers conducted the study on a group of 40 women, 20 of whom were made to look at images of individuals looking slim and fit from healthy magazines while the remaining 20 looked at images that were not related to health.

All of the women were then given a chocolate bar and were asked to rate how much they enjoyed eating it. The researchers found that those who looked at health magazines liked the chocolate bar 16 percent more than those who did not see health related images.

“If you advertise your product as being ‘guilt-free’, what it could implicitly do is lower taste perception by lowering the expectation of pleasure. If you take the guilt out of it, people might not expect it to be as good. Let people benefit from the intrigue and pleasure and enjoy their experience more”, lead researcher Kelly Goldsmith said.

Source-Medindia