Test persons at Case Western in the US had been asked to skip a meal before coming to the lab. Imagine a room with a chair, a table, a small oven and a mirror. Oh, and two bowls on the table: A bowl with chocolate chip cookies, freshly baked in that lab, and a bowl with radishes.

One after another, testers were invited to sit in that room for an experiment on taste perception. Whilst allegedly waiting for their experiment to unfold, one group was invited to eat the cookies, but not to touch the radishes. The other group was told tha the cookies were for another experiment, but they were allowed to eat radishes if they were hungry.

5 minutes into the experiment…