Experiencing sweet taste is associated with an increase in prosocial behavior

Abstract

Taste may be the first sense that emerged in evolution. Taste is also a very important sense since it signals potential beneficial or dangerous effects of foods. Given this fundamental role of taste in our lives, it is not surprising that taste also affects our psychological perception and thinking. For example, previous research demonstrated remarkable psychological effects of sweet taste experiences, suggesting that sweetness may be a source domain for prosocial functioning. Recent research reports that briefly experiencing sweet taste made participants more helpful in their intentions and behavior. The current study aims to test this hypothesis and to examine the neural underpinnings of this effect by using an fMRI approach. Participants were asked to taste sweet, salty, and neutral taste while lying in the fMRI scanner. Subsequently their prosocial behavior was tested by playing the dictator game, a measure of prosocial behavior. Results showed that sweet taste was associated with an increase in prosocial behavior compared with previously experiencing salty taste but did not affect control stimuli ratings. FMRI results revealed a modulation of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex associated with this sweetness effect. This brain area is known to play a central role for monitoring conflicts and decisions and has been directly linked to selfish and prosocial economic decisions. The results demonstrate that sweet taste has complex psychological effects including positive and socially desirable outcomes. We discuss the results with other studies on psychological sweetness effects and suggest possible implications of these findings.

Hedonic eating, obesity, and addiction result from increased neuropeptide Y in the nucleus accumbens during human brain evolution

“…This shift could have included monogamous pair bonding ( 4 , 52 , 59 – 61 ). Of note is that the experience of sweet taste is associated with romantic feelings and an increase in prosocial behaviors ( 62 – 65 ), while bitter taste has been associated with moral disgust ( 66 ). It is not known how the experience of fat consumption influences social or other behaviors, but these results would lead to the prediction that fat intake may increase positive social behaviors as well as brain nutrient supply.…”

Spice up the moment: The influence of spicy taste on people's metaphorical perspectives on time

“…As such, our research opens up promising avenues for integrated investigation into the influence of other tastes or other sensory modalities on temporal perspective preferences that bears on mutual arousal of emotion and its attendant motivation. For example, studies have shown that sweet taste can have a favorable effect on hypothetical romantic relationships (Ren et al, 2015) and promote prosocial behaviors (Meier et al, 2012), both of which exemplify approach behavior (Schaefer et al, 2023). It would be interesting to find out whether experiencing sweet taste would tilt the taster toward the ego-moving perspective because of its being positive and a catalyzer for approach-related social cognition and behavior.…”

How does bitter taste guide the utilization of medicinal plants in the semiarid region of Brazil?

“…Apart from influencing the selection of medicinal plants, taste can also sway affective responses and the consumption of these plants (Geck et al 2017). For instance, food items rich in polyphenols, which manifest bitter and astringent qualities, are not readily accepted by children (Canivenc-Lavier et al 2019), while sweet substances are preferred by humans (Venditti et al 2020, Schaefer et al 2023. These reactions might have evolved as a mechanism to navigate nature-derived chemicals, where bitter and sour flavors denote toxic compounds (Glendinning 1994) and sweet and salty tastes signify energy sources (Hayes & Johnson 2017).…”