CONTEXTUAL SHIFTS IN HEDONIC JUDGMENTS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Taste intensity ratings are higher when many low‐intensity stimuli are presented than when many high‐intensity stimuli are presented. It is investigated whether similar contextual shifts occur for hedonic judgments. Experiment 1 assessed the perceived pleasantness of a heterogeneous stimulus set containing either a large number of quinine (unpleasant context) or sucrose (pleasant context) solutions. In Experiment 2 subjects made hedonic judgments for a set of sucrose solutions. They were classified pre‐experimentally as ‘sweet‐likers,’‘neutrals,’ or ‘sweet‐dislikers.’ Stimulus frequency distributions were positively or negatively skewed. In Experiment 1, hedonic ratings in the pleasant context were lower than those obtained in the unpleasant context. In Experiment 2, no effect of stimulus context was found. It is argued that contextual shifts in hedonic judgments are found only if the stimuli differ substantially along the hedonic dimension. In addition, the subject groups should be homogeneous with regard to preference rank orders, and should be sufficiently large to allow testing with adequate statistical power.