Confirmed: Indulgent food tastes better when you’re on a diet

But the link between guilt and pleasure does not stop at food.

In another experiment, women were made to feel guilty and then shown online profiles of attractive men on a dating website.

The study found the women who had felt guilty prior to looking at men derived much more pleasure from the experience.

‘Guilt is linked with pleasure because often times when we experience guilt, we experience pleasure,’ Goldsmith says.