Sandra Langeslag and Emily Marler, University of Missouri – St. Louis, United States
published in the Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Love and Relationship Studies, 6-8 March, 2026
You can see the full video recording of this presentation at the YouTube channel of the International Institute of Love Studies
Introduction
Romantic love and chocolate seem linked: Chocolate is a popular valentine’s day gift and eating chocolate is a common way to cope with heartbreak. Consuming chocolate may even satisfy the need for sex. Research has shown that people who are in love attend more to their beloved than to other people (Langeslag & Van Strien, 2019). Research has also shown that people who crave chocolate have an attentional bias for chocolate versus other palatable foods (Kemps & Tiggemann, 2009).
The aims of the current study are to directly compare 1) how much people crave their beloved and chocolate, 2) how much attention they pay to their beloved and to chocolate, and 3) how pleasant and aroused they feel when they view their beloved and chocolate.
Methodology and method
The study was conducted with ten participants (19-49 years) who were both in love with someone and considered themselves chocolate cravers. Data collection is still in progress.
Participants completed two adapted versions of the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges; the word “cigarette” with replaced with “beloved” or “chocolate” to create one version that assessed craving of the beloved and another version that assessed craving of chocolate. Participants also completed a dot-probe task with beloved and chocolate cues.
The dot probe task measures attentional bias to, attention orienting to, and attention disengagement from beloved and chocolate cues. In the dot probe task, a fixation cross was presented for 1000 ms, after which two pictures (one on the left and one on the right of the fixation cross) were presented for 500 ms. Both pictures could be of the beloved or of people eating/holding chocolate, or there could be one beloved and one chocolate picture. Then, a dot appeared and participants were instructed to press a button as fast and accurately as possible to indicate whether the dot appeared on the left or the right. Finally, participants completed valence and arousal ratings to indicate how pleasant and activated they felt when viewing the beloved and chocolate cues.
Highlights of results
The questionnaire data revealed that participants experienced greater craving for their beloved than for chocolate. In the dot probe task, participants tended to show greater orienting of attention toward beloved than chocolate cues. To be specific, they responded faster on trials with one beloved and one chocolate picture with the dot behind the beloved picture than on trials with two chocolate pictures, and equally fast on trials with one beloved and one chocolate picture with the dot behind the chocolate picture as on trials with two beloved pictures. Participants also reported to feel more pleasant and aroused when viewing beloved than chocolate cues.
Discussion and conclusions
Thus, chocolate cravers who are in love feel an even stronger craving, positive valence, and arousal for their beloved than for chocolate, and may also orient their attention more to beloved than chocolate cues. These findings suggest that the extent to which chocolate could substitute for romantic love might be limited.
References
Kemps, E., & Tiggemann, M. (2009). Attentional bias for craving-related (chocolate) food cues. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 17, 425-433.
Langeslag, S. J. E., & Van Strien, J. W. (2019). Romantic love and attention: early and late event-related potentials. Biological Psychology,146, 107737.