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In Western culture and way of thinking, coffee has long been strongly associated with productivity. According to the staff of the University of Toronto, this connection has reached such a degree that even a hint of this drink (thought, look) affects how our mind works.
"Coffee is considered one of the most popular drinks, and quite a lot is already known about its physical effects. Much less is known about its psychological significance. In other words, even visible images that remind us of her can influence how we think,” says co-author of the study Sam Maglio. The article itself is published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition.
Together with another researcher, Eugene Chan, Maglio looked at a psychological effect called "attitude fixation," or priming. According to them, through priming, exposure to even subtle, almost imperceptible signals or stimuli can change our perception of the world around us, our thoughts and behavior.
Because in our daily lives we often encounter images related to coffee or think about the beverage itself, we often undergo a process of fixation on coffee. The authors of the study decided to find out whether it really has a noticeable effect on people, whether there is a connection between coffee and arousal of the body - whether their physiological arousal increases as much as if they really drank coffee.
Arousal refers to a state of wakefulness and alertness: in the brain, it is mediated by certain areas of the brain that increase and then maintain their activity levels. The authors explain that mental arousal can be caused by many things, including emotions, neurotransmitters in the brain, or the caffeine we consume (which is why coffee can "wake up"). But does the simple look at coffee and the drink itself have the same effect on our body?
To find out, a team of scientists conducted four separate studies, working with different participants from Western and Eastern cultures. A wide cultural range of subjects was needed so that the experts could compare the effects of the signals associated with both coffee and tea. During the study, they found that participants exposed to coffee-related cues perceived time as shorter and thought in more concrete and precise terms.
“People who experience physiological arousal—again, in this case as a result of priming, not from drinking coffee itself—see the world in more concrete, detailed terms. This has a number of consequences for how people process information and make decisions," says Maglio.
This effect was relatively strong in Westerners, but not as pronounced in participants raised in the East. Experts believe that this is due to differences in the perception of coffee between the two cultural groups. According to them, in North America, for example, there is an image of a busy businessman rushing to an important meeting with a triple espresso in hand, but in other cultures there is no such thing.
In the future, the authors plan to continue this line of research and examine people's associations with different foods and beverages, as well as how they influence the priming effect.
