Sam Maglio, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, Canada, said in an interview that a look at a coffee cup can cause almost the same excitement that people have in having it, mentioning a study published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition.
The study, co-authored with Eugene Chan of the University of Monash in Australia, deals with priming, a psychological effect responsible for the repetition of previously exercised responses to the same stimulus.
Thus, the study subjects were led to consider memories about coffee, which produced an increase in their levels of physiological excitation, according to their own estimates and also according to the measurements of their heart rate.
The association between coffee and excitement is probably so strong that it can produce cognitive changes even when there is no physiological intake of caffeine,» the study’s researchers say.