Love Chocolate, Love People?

Based on a new research, if you happen to have a sweet tooth, chances are, you’re friendlier than those who don’t. Volunteers who preferred chocolate to a non-sweet food product appeared to have a cheery personality.

Turns out, the main characteristic that these chocolate lovers possess is the passion for helping those in need. Nevertheless, it is still debatable whether it was because of chocolate’s mood-enhancing properties or merely the innate fondness of a person. Hold on, don’t go on pretending to be an extreme chocoholic just yet!

‘Our taste studies controlled for positive mood so the effects we found are not due to the happy or rewarding feeling one may have after eating a sweet food,’ says Brian Meiers, a psychology professor at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania.

The five experiments that involved sweetness and agreeability were done by researchers at Gettysburg College, St. Xavier University in Chicago and North Dakota State University with a sample above 500. ‘It is striking that helpful and friendly people are considered ‘sweet’ because taste would seem to have little in common with personality or behavior,’ Meiers added.

In one of the five studies conducted, researchers found out that the society tends to stereotype people who love sweets as the more agreeable ones than people who don’t. ‘People rated those associated with sweet food higher in agreeableness,’ Meiers said.

That judgment was done by merely looking at photographs of people they have never even met, and these people were making neutral facial expressions. Below the photos are short descriptions of them, say, they are fond of eating chocolate or not.

‘There has been a push to find out how these traits are self-predicting of what we do with our daily life,’ Sarah Moeller, a psychology professor at St. Xavier University. ‘We are showing that with these personality traits that you show subtle aspect of self,’ she added. The research was published in the Journal of Personality Social Psychology.

Who wouldn’t want to be considered as sweet? Now being a chocoholic isn’t so bad after all!

Find More Learn About Chocolate Articles