magazine issue 4 2014 / Issue 20

Word of mouth: How our tongue shapes our preferences, and why you should eat popcorn in the cinema

• written by Sascha Topolinski
• edited by Spike Lee

More generally, this research shows how important our body is for acquiring memory and make sense of our environment. Our mind is no dry collection of abstract concepts and features, but a rich bulk of sensory and motor representations that constitute knowledge, memory, and feelings. Beyond the current effects on liking of neutral words, psychological research has shown that the body plays a major role in phenomena as diverse as social relations (e.g., IJzerman, & Semin, 2009; Schubert, Schubert, & Topolinski, 2013; Sparenberg, Topolinski, Springer, & Prinz, 2012), interpersonal trust (Lee & Schwarz, 2012), experiencing time (Boroditsky & Ramscar, 2002), or aesthics in arts (Leder, Bär, & Topolinski, 2013).

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