How much pleasure do we really get from eating chocolate?
Is eating chocolate the most enjoyable thing to do in the whole wide world? To find out, we took part in a unique experiment to measure pleasure.
How to measure pleasure
I was one of 80 guinea pigs picked to take part in the bizarre test run by Birkbeck University and Beyond Dark chocolate – the first experiment of its kind.
Held at Ravensbourne College, overlooking the O2 Arena, it involved strapping an electroencephalography (EEG) monitor to one’s head before engaging in a series of pleasurable activities (nothing dodgy) in front of a team of neuroscientists.
I popped bubble wrap, watched pretty images on a screen, listened to a violinist playing both appallingly and beautifully, stroked puppies and ate chocolate among other delights… a wonderfully relaxing day for me, but exhausting for my brain’s ‘prefrontal cortex’, which was working overtime to try and take in all that pleasure.
We had to take off our EEG headsets and stare at a blank wall between each experiment to bring our brains back down to earth, and I was heartbroken when we were told not to eat anything either, lest the joy of that affected how happy our brain was for the next experiment. A fellow lab rat did share her contraband Black Jack sweets with me though… the authorities didn’t suspect a thing!
Money can buy you happiness
Six hours of stomach rumbling later and the results were in (ranging from -100 for least pleasurable to +100 for most pleasurable). First off, ‘money’ can buy you happiness: finding an unexpected £10 note generated the highest level of pleasure among all participants (82.9); second place went to ‘affection’ (playing with puppies) at 67.5; third was ‘taste’ (eating Beyond Dark chocolates) at 65; followed by ‘affection’ again in fourth place at 64.1 (playing with kittens); and ‘sound’ in fifth place (61), with a concert violinist playing well.
Interestingly, eating Beyond Dark chocolate scored more pleasure points than eating both Green & Blacks and Divine chocolate, which scored 54 and 52 respectively. A convenient result for our chocolatey co-hosts.
"We were surprised to find just a single drop of dark chocolate generated more pleasure than listening to a concert violinist or stroking a kitten,” said Kevin Nester, Beyond Dark founder. Some respondents even demonstrated feelings of displeasure when the testing was complete, suggesting they felt sad about the sudden absence of chocolate.
Fun females
The female participants generally found life more pleasurable, recording an average of 66.4 on the pleasure scale while men fell behind at 58.2. And men were most affected by winning money, scoring as high as 90.1 when they were surprised with £10; women were less impressed, scoring 79.3.
On the other end of the scale, ‘bad sounds’ (terrible violin playing) was the most depressing thing to do (scoring -55.7), followed by negative images (-38.4). I remember grimacing at photos of rotten teeth and crying babies… personally I found that more distressing than the awful violin music.
You can watch a video of the day’s events here.
How much pleasure do you get from chocolate? Do you think you can scientifically measure pleasure? Talk to us in the Comments box below…
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