The Effect Of Sweet And Bitter Tastes On Interpersonal Forgiveness

Forgiveness is considered one of the crucial methods for resolving interpersonal conflicts and fostering reconciliation among individuals.Previous research has demonstrated that the neural pathways involved in taste perception can activate corresponding cognitive experiences through metaphors,thereby influencing social attitudes and behavioral decisions.For instance,sweet taste promotes pro-social behavior,whereas bitter taste triggers hostility and aggressive behavior.Against this backdrop,this study aims to investigate the impact of sweet and bitter taste perception on interpersonal forgiveness,utilizing multiple experimental methods such as surveys and behavioral experiments,across phenomenological,implicit cognition,and behavioral research domains.The study comprises three distinct research investigations,which are delineated as follows:Study 1 used a survey method,referencing previous taste-emotion association assessment questionnaires.Participants were asked to rate the correlation between five taste labels and forgiveness-related affective words(forgiving/unforgiving)in order to explore whether people perceive a stronger association between sweet taste and forgiving words,and between bitter taste and unforgiving words in everyday language.The results showed that participants displayed explicit attitude differences in the emotional association between different tastes and forgiveness-related affective words.Further analysis revealed that sweet taste exhibited the highest correlation with forgiving emotions,while bitter taste was the most strongly correlated taste characteristic with unforgiving emotions.In Study 2,an Implicit Association Test was used to examine whether participants automatically associate sweet taste with affective words related to forgiveness and bitter taste with affective words related to unforgiveness.The IAT consisted of two types of tasks: a compatible task and an incompatible task,which were designed by pairing attribute words(taste words)with concept words(forgiveness-related affective words)in either a compatible or incompatible manner.The study’s findings revealed that participants’ reaction times in the compatible task(sweet/bitter taste and forgiveness/unforgiveness)were significantly shorter than those in the incompatible task(sweet/bitter taste and unforgiveness/forgiveness),suggesting that participants tended to associate sweetness with forgiving emotions more than the association between bitterness and forgiving emotions.Study 3 used a behavioral experimental approach to examine the impact of sweet and bitter taste perception on interpersonal forgiveness.The study utilized a real taste experience,with participants assigned to either a sweet,bitter,or control group,to elicit their taste perception in the laboratory.The researchers also manipulated participants’ offended emotions using an adapted version of the unfair distribution behavior in the ultimatum paradigm.The aim was to observe and measure their behavioral performance in an economic decision-making task.The results showed that subjects in the sweet taste experience group,when confronted with unfair allocation opponents in the ultimatum task,would present more relatively fair allocation behaviors in the subsequent dictator task compared to the bitter taste vs.control group;subjects in the bitter taste experience group,on the contrary,would show fewer fair allocation behaviors in the subsequent economic decision-making task compared to the sweet taste vs.control group.Taken together,the above studies lead to the conclusions regarding:(1)There is an epiphenomenal association between sweet/bitter taste perception and the concepts of forgiveness/unforgiveness.This is reflected in the tendency to associate sweetness with forgiveness terms and bitterness with unforgiveness terms among the five basic taste sensations.(2)There is an implicit association between the sweet/bitter taste concept and the forgiveness/unforgiveness concept.This is manifested in the implicit association of "sweet-forgiveness" and "bitter-unforgiveness".(3)Sweet and bitter taste experiences can influence interpersonal forgiveness responses.After being unfairly offended by a situation,those who experience sweet taste will engage in more interpersonal forgiveness behaviors,while those who experience bitter taste will engage in less interpersonal forgiveness behaviors.In summary,this study has illuminated the potential association underlying the perceptions of "sweet" and "bitter" in enduring life experiences with the interpersonal emotions of "forgiveness" and "unforgiveness".Specifically,our findings have revealed that the positivity of forgiveness is endowed with the connotation of sweetness,while bitterness is intricately entwined with the negativity of unforgiving emotions.By expanding on the cross-modal inquiry into the complex interplay of taste perception and interpersonal emotions,our investigation lends support to the theory of conceptual metaphor.This has further reinforced our research into the metaphorical functions of taste perception,and has provided practical guidance for the maintenance of interpersonal relationships and consumptive practices.