**Replication Information**
One group consisting of four people will conduct a replication of this study originally done by Eskine, K. J., Kacinik, N. A., & Prinz, J. J. (2011). The students will perform the replication study as a part of their Research Methods psychology class, led by Professor Dr. Nicole Legate and Sean Rafajko, graduate student, at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, Illinois. It is estimated that the sample of students that will participate in this study at IIT will be more diverse in gender and in terms of ethnicity than the original sample study was.
**Student Researchers**
Group ("Sweetish Betters”) Reya Green Cesar Armas Lindsay Zasadzinski Emily Darnell
**Project Supervision**
Dr. Nicole Legate
Sean Rafajko
**Original Research Abstract**
Can sweet-tasting substances trigger kind, favorable judgments about other people? What about substances that are disgusting and bitter? Various studies have linked physical disgust to moral disgust, but despite the rich and sometimes striking findings these studies have yielded, no research has explored morality in conjunction with taste, which can vary greatly and may differentially affect cognition. The research reported here tested the effects of taste perception on moral judgments. After consuming a sweet beverage, a bitter beverage, or water, participants rated a variety of moral transgressions. Results showed that taste perception significantly affected moral judgments, such that physical disgust (induced via a bitter taste) elicited feelings of moral disgust. Further, this effect was more pronounced in participants with politically conservative views than in participants with politically liberal views.Taken together, these differential findings suggest that embodied gustatory experiences may affect moral processing more than previously thought.
