Swiss identity smells like chocolate: Social identity shapes olfactory judgments

Swiss identity smells like chocolate: Social identity shapes olfactory judgments

There is extensive evidence that social identities can shape people's attitudes and behavior, but what about sensory judgments? We examined the possibility that social identity concerns may also shape the judgment of non-social properties-namely, olfactory judgment. In two experiments, we presented Swiss and non-Swiss participants with the odor of chocolate, for which Switzerland is world-famou...

SOCIAL IDENTITY SHAPES SOCIAL VALUATION Running head: SOCIAL IDENTITY SHAPES SOCIAL VALUATION Social Identity Shapes Social Valuation: Evidence from Prosocial Behavior and Vicarious Reward

SOCIAL IDENTITY SHAPES FOOD PLEASANTNESS 1 Running head: SOCIAL IDENTITY SHAPES FOOD PLEASANTNESS From Groups to Grits: Social Identity Shapes Evaluations of Food Pleasantness

Throughout human history, food consumption has been deeply tied to cultural groups. Past models of food preference have assumed that social concerns are dissociated from basic appetitive qualities—such as tastiness—in food choice. Providing a counter to this notion, we tested and found support for the novel idea that social identities can shape the evaluation of food pleasantness. Specifically,...

Chocolate smells pink and stripy: Exploring olfactory-visual synesthesia

Odors are often difficult to identify, and can be perceived either via the nose or mouth ("flavor"; not usually perceived as a "smell"). These features provide a unique opportunity to contrast conceptual and perceptual accounts of synesthesia. We presented six olfactory-visual synesthetes with a range of odorants. They tried to identify each smell, evaluate its attributes and illustrate their e...

Split identity: intransitive judgments of the identity of objects.

Identity is a transitive relation, according to all standard accounts. Necessarily, if x=y and y=z, then x=z. However, people sometimes say that two objects, x and z, are the same as a third, y, even when x and z have different properties (thus, x=y and y=z, but x≠z). In the present experiments, participants read stories about an iceberg that breaks into two icebergs, one to the east and the ot...