Introduction
Ever wonder which starburst flavor is the best? Now you can, with the help of SCIENCE. Naturally, pink is the best (personal communication, me). But don’t take my word for it, polls from Buzzfeed and Ranker.com both support pink as the best, followed by red, yellow, and orange, respectively. However, these polls rely on retrospective memory and could benefit from experiments where participants provide numeric ratings of each candy immediately after consuming them. Thus, the present experiment has the following research question: What is the rank order of tastiness for the original 4 starburst candy flavors?
Method
Students from my third year research methods in social psychology course (N = 72) completed this experiment between 2016-2018 as part of a class exercise. Each student was given 4 starburst candies, one of each flavor (pink/strawberry, red/cherry, orange, and yellow/lemon). They were instructed to eat each candy sequentially in the same order: pink, red, yellow, and orange. Students rated each candy on a 7-point scale from 1 (Extremely untasty) to 7 (Extremely tasty). Thus, I used a within-subjects design with 4 conditions and no counterbalancing.
Results
Data were analyzed using a Kruskall-Wallis test, setting alpha at .05. Pairwise tests were conducted using Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, correcting alpha using a Bonferroni correction for familywise error rates (alpha = .008). Results are displayed in the two figures below. There was a clear ranked preference with pink emerging as the tastiest, followed by red, orange and yellow. Pairwise tests found statistically significant differences between these pairs: (a) pink-orange, (b) pink-yellow, and (c) red-yellow. Open data and syntax can be found on my OSF page.
Discussion
Overall, the results mostly mirror the results of the polls, except that the rank order of orange and yellow are switched. Pink is indeed the superior flavor of original starburst candy flavors. The lack of counterbalancing is a significant limitation, as people may have gotten sick of eating starburst candies by the last one. This seems unlikely, as starburst are delicious. In sum, science supports pink starburst as the tastiest flavor, and yellow as the least tasty flavor.
37 replies on “Which Starburst Flavour is Tastiest?”
no yellow is the best, take my word for it 😎
Ew no!!!!
You’re disgusting
Kys
agreed
yellow is the best
dumb ass whore no its not
Guys all the flavors are the best
no pink is the best
Yes but also red I think they both have a tie
My country has purple green red and orange and purple is the best
Which country
Canada (Nova Scotia, specifically)
yellow is the greatest flavor starburst. It simply is un top-able, the flavoring is immaculate. i cannot understand how other people can call my crazy or even a psychopath for liking what is indefinitely the best flavor.
I like yellow because no one else likes it and I dont have to share them
I say red and pink have a tie they just taste like candy the yellow and orange need to be reinvented they taste like crap
Yellow is amazing
My favorite is the orange one 🧡
Pink is overrated, red is.. bleh, and yellow is second best.
I wish there was a lime, grape, or just any additional 5th flavor.
My favorite is the orange one 🧡
Pink is overrated, red is.. bleh, and yellow is second best.
I wish there was a lime, grape, or just any additional 5th flavor.
Endubitably I do say that thy yellow will always have a spot in my heart for the most scrumptious and juicy flavor. It really makes my taste buds act up. I believe that undoubtedly red is the worst. Whenever I see red my hart just sinks to a fetus like shape and I want to die.
Endubitably I do say that thy yellow will always have a spot in my heart for the most scrumptious and juicy flavor. It really makes my taste buds act up. I believe that undoubtedly red is the worst. Whenever I see red my hart just sinks to a fetus like shape and I want to die.
Who the fuck are these idiots saying yellow is the best and also saying red is the worst. Were your parents just not around in life? That has to be one of the most wrong opinions I’ve heard in such a long time
orange must die in a hole
Yellow is ass
Pink is totally the best, but red is definitely the worst. I just do not like cherry flavored candy. I’m not a big fan of the orange or yellow, but yellow just makes my second favorite.
Orange is the worst and I got a bag that has mostly all orange it! 🤬 Red is the best then pink then yellow.
You guys are all crazy asl PINK is the absolute best flavor out of all the starburst flavors
FUCK ALL YOU FUCKING CUNTS SAYING YELLOW IS BAD! YELLOW IS THE ABSOLUTE GREATEST FUCKING STARBURST FLAVOR EVER MADE IT IS SIMPLY EXCELLENT. I WOULD EAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCKING SHIT OUT OF A WHOLE PACK. ALL YOU RETARDED DUMBASSES CALLING YELLOW BAD SHOULD JUST GO FUCKING KILL YOURSELF.
Sincerely, Brad (ps:pink is 2nd)
Agreed but pink last
I like all the colors so….
y’all trippin 😠yellow tastes like ass nd pink’s wayyyy better
pink=suicide
agreed
I stumbled on this page, and did a little bit of a replication with my students! We are covering pros and cons of within-subjects designs and counterbalancing, so we did it more from a research methods perspective. They loved eating the starburst! And their votes were the same (yellow is gross!!)
That’s so great to hear you adapted it for your class! That’s exactly the reason we did this study too, so students could learn about within-subjects designs.
My accomplice and I have personally taste tested all of the flavors offered by Starburst Co., and have found reasonable evidence that this is the ranking of flavors (from best to worst): 1. Strawberry 2. Cherry 3. Watermelon 4. Orange 5. Fruit Punch 6. Lemon. In conclusion the copland of our findings has led us to believe that the hydrogenated palm kernel oil has influenced the flavors of the Starburst Co. Products.
Guys all the colors are awsome and delicous what if there was a rainbow flavor and what about the other flavors