Your senses lie to you based on which team you’re on. New psychological research shows group identity doesn’t just influence your opinions - it warps your basic senses of taste and smell.

On Hidden Brain, psychologist Jay Van Bavel details experiments proving the effect. Canadians primed with their national identity consistently prefer maple syrup over honey. British university students rated the same disgusting shirt as far more putrid if they thought it belonged to a rival student. The sensory input was identical; the perception was filtered through group allegiance.

Jay Van Bavel, Hidden Brain:

- What we're trying to argue and what the growing body of research suggests is that these identities are a lens that shape all kinds of our senses.

- They shape how we're smelling and interpreting smells, what we're seeing, maybe what we're hearing.

These perceptual filters become most powerful when an identity is threatened or made salient. A Canadian flag on a backpack overseas creates an instant bond that wouldn't register back home. The minority situation triggers the identity.

Smart actors use this deliberately. Nelson Mandela harnessed it by embracing South Africa’s Springboks rugby team, a symbol of white oppression, to unite a fractured post-apartheid nation. Corporations do the same for profit. Molson Breweries’ “I Am Canadian” campaign spiked sales by tapping directly into primed national pride.

The research reframes free will. A significant portion of what feels like personal preference - from what tastes good to what smells bad - is a social product of which identity is currently active. The lens can be pointed, for unity or for profit.