Bitter Sweet

No I’m not talking about dark chocolate. We’ve all heard the expression, “that left a bad taste in my mouth”. Well researchers set out to discover whether this expression is a mere metaphor or quite literally true. Could there be a link between moral judgements people make and the disgusting foods they eat?

Once again college students were the guinea pigs and were asked to drink a bitter tasting liquid; a sweet beverage or water (the neutralizer) and afterwards were administered a moral judgement task. This is where it gets gross. The participants were asked to rate some photos on a scale form 0 "not at all morally wrong" to 100 "extremely morally wrong." of some over-the-top morally murky behaviours. For instance, a man eating his dead dog (seriously, this is what they come up with); ambulance chasing lawyers trawling after hospital patients; second cousins sleeping together. The researchers were obvious fans of John Huston’s Chinatown. What’s wrong with showing someone drinking urine; broken bones; or cutting off their own arm with a Swiss army knife? (127 Hours; Good flick btw)

No surprises, those given the bitter drink rated all of the behaviours higher (78) than those who were administered the water (62) or sweeter drink (60). So what do these findings tell us? Well for one thing researchers have way too much time on their hands. But also, our sensory experiences, (taste) may play a more important role in our cognitive lives, including our moral judgements which have been considered to be by and large reason-based. The researchers suspect these bodily behaviours may be biasing people’s thoughts and judgement.

Can one then conclude sweet tastes improve our moral judgements? I am inclined to say no. I wrote the book on sweet tooth. I called it Sweet Tooth. And my moral judgement is questionable at best. Why just last night during Earth Hour I was not only watching March Madness on television, I was live streaming tennis on my computer and baking beans in the oven with the lights on whilst eating cookies. And btw, I was still left with a bitter taste in my mouth after Andy Roddick lost!