Let's pretend that I cook you a steak (and that I can even cook steak edibly). I make you one heck of a steak. It is so good you have to call your friends and tell them how delicious it is, because you really just can't stand it's deliciousness. You must, simply must, spread the good news and the joy that you feel.

Now pretend we know each other and I cooked you a steak the exact same way. It has the exact same ingredients, exact same cooking time, and whatever else goes into making a super-delicious steak. Would you knowing that I really, really wanted you to enjoy your steak, as opposed to me just making you a steak, make the steak taste differently?

At this point, are you thinking, "umm, yeah, it is the same steak buddy. Why would it taste differently?"

Recent research by Kurt Gray (professor of psychology, University of Maryland) tested the role of good intentions in food taste. If food tastes better when people have good intentions, then when people eat food, they should rate it as tastier when they think the food was given/cooked with good intentions.

This is exactly what this research found. In one study, participants were given candy to eat. In the "good intentions" group, participants were given candy and told it was chosen just for them. In the "bad intentions" group, participants were given the same candy, but were told it was picked randomly for them to eat.