# Why do women like chocolate so much? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654 "2009-05-16T16:56:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/1 "2009-05-16T16:56:53Z")
Like most men, I have no particular love of chocolate, and given the option of a bar of 80% cocoa finest swiss organic fair trade whatever… or say a bacon cheeseburger… I’ll go for the latter any time. But most women seem to love the stuff, completely irrationally. Any reason? ---
**Author:** ![QuercusMax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/8baadc/32.png) [@QuercusMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuercusMax)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/2 "2009-05-16T17:02:53Z")
Maybe you just don’t like chocolate? I’m a man, and love chocolate, personally. Chocolate has sugar, caffeine, fat, and other stuff, and it’s supposed to stimulate the release of endorphins. Great stuff. My questions would be: why don’t _you_ like chocolate? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/3 "2009-05-16T17:04:31Z")
I like chocolate, I just don’t see what’s so great about it. Chocolate seems to have some kind of mystical quality for 99% of birds 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@bink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bink)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/4 "2009-05-16T17:06:16Z")
Why do men like boobs so much? ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/5 "2009-05-16T17:12:14Z")
> [@bink](#): > > Why do men like boobs so much? Because we don’t have them. At least, most of us don’t. And I hope I never get them. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/6 "2009-05-16T17:15:21Z")
I’m a guy and I think Dark Chocolate is the greatest food related item in existence. Better than Bacon, better than Pizza. Heck, I didn’t care much for chocolate before I discovered dark chocolate. Now I know why. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/7 "2009-05-16T17:18:36Z")
Man. Loves chocolate. There’s nothing irrational about it; chocolate is the _Food of the Gods_. Dark chocolate, anyway. Milk chocolate is too insipid to bother with unless no real chocolate is available. My wife, on the other hand, dislikes it. Which is fine with me, since that means I get it all. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/8 "2009-05-16T17:28:01Z")
The reason, as hinted at by above posters, is stereotyping. I know just as many men that lust after chocolate as women. When the women I know play up their relationship with chocolate, it’s because they’re (usually consciously) buying into the “vagina = chocolate love” idea. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/9 "2009-05-16T17:28:16Z")
> [@Angry Lurker](#): > > Like most men, I have no particular love of chocolate, and given the option of a bar of 80% cocoa finest swiss organic fair trade whatever… or say a bacon cheeseburger… I’ll go for the latter any time. > > But most women seem to love the stuff, completely irrationally. Any reason? I dispute this premise. As soon as you prove it we can go on to find the reason but I believe the premise is false and therefore no reason can be found which would explain it. Oh, and I love chocolate and whenever I need boobs I need to borrow them from someone who has some. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/10 "2009-05-16T17:31:17Z")
Big, hairy, heterosexual male here, and I say there are few things on God’s gray earth to compare with chocolate. Dark and milk are both wonderful, though I do tend to prefer chocolate with something in it, as in nuts or some kind of filling, to plain chocolate. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/11 "2009-05-16T17:38:31Z")
You’re all wrong, I know what I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/12 "2009-05-16T17:47:00Z")
Somebody with a better neuroanatomy background will have to parse this for us, but [male and female brains respond very differently to chocolate satiety](http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/83/6/1297): > [@](#): > > In men, chocolate satiation was associated with increased taste activation in the ventral striatum, insula, and orbitofrontal and medial orbitofrontal cortex and with decreased taste activation in somatosensory areas. Women showed increased taste activation in the precentral gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, and putamen and decreased taste activation in the hypothalamus and amygdala. Sex differences in the effect of chocolate satiation were found in the hypothalamus, ventral striatum, and medial prefrontal cortex (all P \< 0.005). ---
**Author:** ![ivn1188](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e480ec/32.png) [@ivn1188](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivn1188)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/13 "2009-05-16T18:00:49Z")
Now that we’ve gotten the PC out of the way: [http://www.news.wisc.edu/13719](http://www.news.wisc.edu/13719). ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/14 "2009-05-16T18:41:20Z")
> [@ivn1188](#): > > Now that we’ve gotten the PC out of the way Yup, they’re a damn nuisance, aren’t they? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/15 "2009-05-16T18:48:39Z")
Men like chocolate (I do) but it seems to be that women are the only ones accused of binge eating of it like consuming entire boxes at a sitting. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/16 "2009-05-16T19:00:11Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > Because we don’t have them. > > At least, most of us don’t. And I hope I never get them. You should visit my neighborhood. LOL I’d say it’s like 95% of men, boys and male infants HAVE THEM. I swear it must be female hormones in the water. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/17 "2009-05-16T19:15:36Z")
Or you live in america, land of man boobs ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/18 "2009-05-16T19:31:42Z")
girl … mmmmmbacon bacon bacon bacon spam eggs and bacon ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/19 "2009-05-16T19:38:19Z")
> [@QuercusMax](#): > > My questions would be: why don’t _you_ like chocolate? **Max,** I don’t think we’re delving deep enough here. **Angry,** why do you hate America? Seriously, I like chocolate, esp. dark chocolate, but I’d never pass up bacon cheeseburgers or beer for chocolate. I’d eat the bacon cheeseburger, drink the beer, and _then_ have the dark chocolate. Really, it’s the only way to live. _If_ you love America. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654/20 "2009-05-16T19:38:54Z")
> [@Angry Lurker](#): > > You’re all wrong, I know what I’ve seen. Dude, I don’t know who you’re hanging out with but trust me, most of the men I know love chocolate, and I know many women who don’t care for it much or at all. I agree that your premise is faulty. I don’t really see any gender differences in preference for chocolate. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-like-chocolate-so-much/496654.md?page=2)