He showed the words “chocolate cake” to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. “Guilt” was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: “celebration.

Michael Pollan
About This Quote

The “chocolate cake” test is a psychological study that asks subjects to associate words with images. A good example of this is the word “chocolate” paired with an image of cake. The results show that people often think about chocolate when they think about cake. But there was one curious result: Americans responded with “guilt,” while the French associated the word with “celebration.” According to psychologist Richard Wiseman, this has important implications for the way we view eating habits.

Source: In Defense Of Food: An Eaters Manifesto

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