Let me call you sweetheart

As an expert in this article says, the tongue could be a window to the psyche.

The article above summarizes recent research into the correlation between taste and our behavior and emotions.  Some of the highlights:

• Research suggests that people highly attuned to bitter tastes tend to startle more easily than those not so well attuned to bitterness.
• The enjoyment of bitter tastes is associated with higher levels of antisocial behavior.
• Volunteers judge transgressions more harshly after drinking something bitter than after drinking water.
• Thinking of love can make plain water taste sweeter.
• After a happy event, volunteers rate a lemon-lime sorbet as sweeter than after a negative event.

Maybe this helps us understand where certain gustatory metaphors come from – like when we call someone a bitter person, or when we call them sweetheart, or when we say “that victory was sweet.”