Journal of Student Research 2019

Journal of Student Research

167 Why Do You Taste So Ugly: Examination of Flavor on Perceived Attractiveness “While completing the survey I rated the faces based on how: a) Sexually attractive they were, b) Attracted I was to them, or c) Generally aesthetically pleasing they were. The participants then rated a series of 14 facial images on their objective attractiveness using the Attractiveness Measure, with each image appearing twice. In this condition, no mention of flavor experiences was mentioned. Experimental Attractiveness Group. For the experimental groups, the researchers escorted participants into a lab room, and obtained informed consent. Following consent, participants were given a randomly assigned Bean Boozled Jelly Bean, which are designed to have a pleasant (e.g., tutti-frutti) or unpleasant (e.g., stinky socks) flavor for each color of bean and asked to follow the prompts on the computer regarding what to do next. The researchers instructed the participants to chew the jelly bean to experience the flavor, instead of simply swallowing it whole, and advised that if the participant was unable to swallow the jelly bean that there was a garbage can available in the lab room. Participants were then left alone to complete the session using the computer prompts via a Qualtrics survey. Prior to consumption, the participants were directed to select a jelly bean image that most closely resembled the one that was selected and then were prompted to eat the Bean Boozled Jelly Bean. Participants in the experimental conditions also received the same objective attractiveness directions and manipulation checks as those in the baseline attractiveness group. Immediately after, the participants proceeded to rate the pleasantness of the flavor on the Hedonic Scale (Peryam & Girardot, 1952). Participants then rated the attractiveness of the six facial images using the Attractiveness Measure, with each image appearing twice. At the end of the experimental survey, the participants answered demographic questions and identified the flavor of jelly bean they experienced based upon which jelly bean image they selected earlier in the survey. If neither of the options associated with the jelly bean picture seemed to match the flavor being experienced, participants received a prompt to write what flavor of jelly bean they thought they had. Then, the researcher debriefed the participants by thanking them, offering them gum, answering any questions, and asking them to not disclose the details of the study to protect its validity. Finally, the participants were given an information sheet with the researchers’ contact information for any future questions and then escorted them out of the lab.

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Attractiveness Measure. In the baseline group, participants completed a survey in which they rated a series of 14 facial images twice on their objective attractiveness on a 14-point scale of attractiveness (1- Extremely Unattractive , 3- Highly Unattractive , 5- Moderately Unattractive , 7- Slightly Unattractive , 8- Slightly Attractive, 10- Moderately Attractive , 12- Highly Attractive , 14- Extremely Attractive ). The researchers then chose three images of both male faces and female faces from the image set with the lowest deviations among their attractiveness ratings, while maintaining diversity, to be presented to the experimental group. The participants in the experimental conditions rated the selected series of 6 facial images (see Figure 1) on their objective attractiveness using the aforementioned scale, with each image appearing twice. Hedonic Scale . In the experimental conditions, participants consumed a randomly selected Bean Boozled Jelly Bean, that would either have a pleasant (e.g., tutti-frutti) or unpleasant (e.g., stinky socks) flavor. Participants then rated the pleasantness of the flavor on the 9-point Hedonic Scale (Peryam & Girardot, 1952): 1 - Like Extremely , 2 - Like Very Much , 3 - Like Moderately , 4 - Like Slightly , 5 - Neither Like nor Dislike , 6 - Dislike Slightly , 7 - Dislike Moderately , 8 - Dislike Very Muc h, 9 - Dislike Extremely. Additionally, participants were asked to complete a set of demographic questions, regarding their age, gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. Those in the experimental group were also asked about their year in school. Baseline Attractiveness Group. After consenting to participate, participants in the baseline group completed an online survey, which the researchers distributed via Facebook utilizing a snowball sampling technique. During the survey, participants first read through the definition of objective attractiveness that they were supposed to use while rating the faces. Specifically, they were instructed with the following prompt: “For this survey, the word ‘attractive’ is defined as generally aesthetically pleasing. When rating the following faces, please keep this definition in mind. Please do not rate the faces based on if you find them to be sexually attractive, instead rate the faces based on their attractiveness in general .” To ensure that participants were paying attention to this set of instructions, they then completed a multiple-choice question, asking them which definition of ‘attractive’ they should be rating the faces with: a) Sexually attractive, b) I am attracted to this person, or c) Generally aesthetically pleasing. Participants who got the wrong answer the first time viewed a reminder of the instructions and were prompted with the question again. Additionally, participants were asked a similar multiple-choice question again at the end of the study. Specifically, they received the following item, Procedure

Results In order to test hypothesis 1: flavor ratings of the Bean Boozled Jelly

Beans would be positively correlated with ratings of the general attractiveness of the observed faces, a Pearson r correlation was conducted. A significant positive relationship between flavor ratings of jelly beans and ratings of the general attractiveness of the observed faces was found, r (137) = .261, p = .002, r 2 = .07. Specifically, as flavor ratings become more pleasant, attractiveness ratings increased,

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