Love of sweets influences decision‑making

The experiment involved 149 young adults. The researchers compared the participants’ inclination towards sweets with their behavior in tasks assessing impulsivity. The results showed that sweet‑tooth enthusiasts more often chose a smaller but guaranteed reward instead of a larger one that would require waiting. At the same time, if both the smaller and the larger reward involved a delay, such participants were more willing to wait for the larger gain.

After accounting for the level of risk aversion, impulsivity in sweet‑tooth enthusiasts virtually disappeared from the model. This allowed the authors to conclude that the issue may not be impatience, but rather a desire to obtain a predictable result. As lead researcher Anna Davidovich from the Center for Cognitive Research and Decision Making at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow) explained, the conventional view of impulsivity as an inability to delay gratification should be reconsidered, since in the case of sweet‑tooth enthusiasts, the choice of a smaller immediate reward is likely driven by a desire to avoid uncertainty rather than by a pursuit of quick pleasure.

Scientists suggest that this tendency is linked to the functioning of the brain’s opioid system. The craving for sweets correlates with the activity of receptors that are simultaneously involved in experiencing pleasure and in assessing threats and uncertainty. That is, people who particularly like sweets may not only rejoice more strongly at a reward but also perceive potential losses more acutely.