Last week's Casual Friday study had a secret: We weren't just interested in whether you like light desserts; we also wanted to know if the weight and/or gender of the dessert chef influenced your opinion of a dessert.
Each survey participant saw two different versions of a dessert recipe:
Each recipe was randomly credited to one of four chefs:
Then readers rated the recipes for taste, creativity, and healthiness. We wanted to know the dessert chef would influence the ratings. Maybe the heavier chefs would be seen as less credible in presenting the "light" recipes. Maybe heavier chefs would be perceived as having better taste when it comes to sweets. So what did we find?
In the end, there was no significant relationship between the chefs and the ratings of desserts. There were a few interesting trends, but none rose to the level of significance. People were somewhat more likely to say they would eat recipes from the male chefs. This is rather interesting since yesterday's poll showed no special preference for a particular gender, and the most popular chef was a woman (the Barefoot Contessa).
There was also a trend (again non-significant) indicating a preference for eating fattening desserts created by thin chefs, and light desserts created by heavy chefs.
We did find some interesting -- and significant -- correlations among the 550 responses to the survey:
- People who eat dessert frequently are significantly more likely to say they'd eat both "fattening" and "light" desserts than infrequent eaters.
- People who regularly eat healthy/"diet" foods were significantly more likely to eat both the "fattening" and "light" desserts than people who don't eat healthy/diet foods as often.
- Women were significantly more likely to say that the "light" dessert would not taste good (compared to men), and significantly more likely to say they would eat it.
- This is only the second-ever Casual Friday study where women responded in equal numbers to men. (The other is the thermostat study.)
That's it for this week's non-scientific study. Come back next week for another edition.
- Log in to post comments
No fun graphs to look at this time? ;-)
Yes... but the two males are more traditionally / "professionally" dressed (i.e. chef's clothing). I would have liked to the see all four dressed similarly to eliminate that bias.
The 'barefoot contessa' also has the most genuine looking smile.
The very fattening dessert is more attractively presented in the photograph, in my opinion. The blue background and silver colored dish of the low-fat dessert are unappetizing. The warmer tones in the high-fat dessert's photograph contribute to the impression that it would taste better.
> Women were significantly more likely to say that the "light" dessert would not taste good (compared to men), and significantly more likely to say they would eat it.
That's because we (men) lied (about the taste).
If you know how to read a recipe it's not that hard to figure out which would be better. Sugar-free chocolate? Feh. Are people not influenced by what they know of the individuals presented, who are well known? Clearly no real recipe could actually come from Sandra Lee; she's a minion of Satan. Flay is not a pastry guy. Of the four, I'd go with Batali every time.
yea...only visually appealing food seems appetizing. both the desserts should have been presented equally.
I wonder how many people thought something along the lines of "oh, they want to know how I react to pictures of fat people" when they saw the survey, like I did. That kind of stuff might skew the results. (I chose not to submit.)
I paid no attention whatsoever to the chefs. I read the recipes and judged them by their ingredients and procedures.
That's a FAT cook talking.
What I like best about seeing this is that it showcases an important part of scientific publishing that the entertainment media never show you -- the inconclusive result. It may not ever make the front page of the Times, but it is just as important to the function of science when we report "In the end, there was no significant relationship." Thanks for reporting this!
I am puzzled as I read this, because I honestly did not even notice that there were chef photos attached to the recipes. I read them, and actually salivated at the full-fat/flavor recipe. The other turned me off at the beans! (BEANS?) I do like and eat healthy foods, am a normal weight, and an amateur dessert chef. I can imagine that the second recipe would be considerably healthier and is certainly creative, but I would rather have a single bite of the first than an entire plate of the second.
Using real chef's pictures confounds the experiement - what about the people that recognize them?