Sharp judgement (Image: Sean Murphy/Getty)

DON’T drink and judge – bitter tastes alter your moral compass, making you more judgemental.

So say Kendall Eskine at the City University of New York and colleagues, who asked 57 volunteers to rate how morally questionable a set of scenarios were on a scale of 1 to 100. These included a man eating his already-dead dog, and second cousins engaging in consensual sex. The participants also indicated their political orientation.

Before and halfway through the exercise, participants were given a bitter drink, a sweet juice or water.


Those who drank bitter drinks were much harsher in their judgements than those who drank water, giving scenarios a score that was on average 27 per cent higher. Intriguingly, politically conservative individuals were more strongly affected by bitter tastes than liberals (Psychological Science, DOI: 10.1177/0956797611398497).

Although the mechanisms linking taste and behaviour are not yet clear, the authors ask whether jurors should avoid bitter tastes and whether food preferences play a role in shaping political ideals.