CHOCOLATE OR SEX?
Jan 28, 2021
Back in 2007, a research scientist at Mindlab in Brighton, England named Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson recruited couples in their 20s for an unusual experiment. After fitting them with heart monitors and electrodes, he had the couples engage in two activities: melting chocolate in their mouths, and kissing each other. Passionately.
Which activity do you think had the largest and longest-lasting effect on heart rates and brain activity? Chocolate, of course, in some cases up to four times greater than kissing! And, while chocolate is usually thought of as a woman-gendered food, Lewis-Hodgson’s results showed that chocolate had the same effect on everyone.
That study has been referenced countless times over the years, and has inspired some other chocolate-positive studies. A 2014 study in Ireland found that seven out of ten Irish women prefer hot chocolate to sex. And another study, this one in 2007 in England, found that more than 52% of women surveyed from a group of more than 1,500 said that they’d choose a chocolate bar over sex. The fine print: in the Irish study, the women actually preferred hot chocolate to sex “on a Monday evening, after coming home tired and exhausted from work.” Hmmm. Also, the study was conducted by the Cadbury company, as was the second study.
While we can’t take the results of these studies too seriously, they do make us think over here at Tangle. Chocolate has only improved since this research was conducted. Do you think the results would be the same, or different? We will share the results of our anonymous, super simple and not-pretending-to-be-scientific study with you shortly after Valentine’s Day. To participate in the poll if you haven't already, click on the coral question mark that pops up on our web pages, and the question will appear.
https://themindlab.co.uk/team/dr-david-lewis-hodgson/
