Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

How are people affected by what is said to them versus what they taste themselves?

I will give the subject two versions of a snack; an unhealthy version and a healthy version. But I will be telling the subject that each snack is the opposite of what it really is. I need to research into the psychological impact of an outside force contradicting what the person tastes him/her self. I also need to research into which part of the brain controls a person's opinion. Thank you.

Hi,

If you haven't already, I would suggest you look up information on subliminal messages as your project sounds similar to projects on those. I also encourage you to talk to your teacher and find out what rules your science fair has for the use of human subjects.

I'm curious--what is it that you will be measuring after you have told the subjects what kind of snack it is? How will you be measuring the relative 'health' of foods?

Dear indirathebest,

This project sounds very interesting. However, I don't think there is any single part of the brain that controls opinion. Here is are some articles I have found:

http://www.sff.net/people/mberry/taste.htm

http://playcube.org/index.php?option=co ... 4&Itemid=9

http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/workc ... S_2004.pdf

http://www.enotes.com/gale-psychology-e ... edia/taste

I hope this helps!

hi indirathebest

Here's a recent study that may interest you http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2 ... 11608.html
Researchers found that people "enjoy" a $45 wine more than a $5 wine--even when the experimenters lied, and both are the same wine.

Your project in a way falls into both consumer research and psychology/neuroscience. Try playing with those as additional search terms as you do your background research.

It's a hot topic and an interesting one, good luck!

I'm using calorie, and sugar amount to measure the health of the food. I'm also measuring their preference to the foods as well. By the way, thank you all so much.