{{Short description|Type of pleasure that one holds for something despite it not being held in high regard}} {{other uses}} {{confused|Schadenfreude}} {{Dicdef|date=November 2016}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}} thumb|Fresh cream cakes were marketed as "naughty but nice" in a 1980s British advertising campaign.<ref>{{cite book |title=Retail Business: Market reports |date=1988 |publisher=EIU |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-2oWAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref> A '''guilty pleasure''' is something, such as an activity or a piece of media, that one enjoys despite understanding that it is not generally held in high regard or is seen as unusual. For example, a person may secretly enjoy a film while acknowledging that the film is poorly made or generally regarded unfavorably.
The term can also be used to refer to a taste for foods that are considered to be advisable to avoid, especially for health reasons.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://psychologytoday.com/blog/loves-evolver/201005/why-its-good-feel-guilty |title=Why It's Good to Feel Guilty |first=Maryanne|last=Fisher |magazine=Psychology Today |date=May 14, 2010 |access-date=2016-01-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://newyorker.com/books/page-turner/against-guilty-pleasure |title=Against 'Guilty Pleasure' |first=Jennifer|last=Szalai |magazine=The New Yorker |date=December 9, 2013 |access-date=2016-01-19}}</ref> For example, coffee, alcoholic beverages, smoking and chocolate after dinner are considered by many to be guilty pleasures.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Santos|first1=Roseane M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=04SIv_mh-C4C&pg=PA9|title=An Unashamed Defense of Coffee |last2=Santos|first2=Roseane M. |last3=Lima|first3=Darcy R. |date=2009-10-08 |publisher=Xlibris |isbn=978-1-4535-3424-3}}</ref>
==History== George Orwell, in his essay "Rudyard Kipling" (1942), describes the poetry of Kipling as "almost a shameful pleasure".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Orwell |first1=George |title=Essays |date=2000 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=London |isbn=978-0-141-18306-0 |page=213}}</ref>
== See also == * Guilt * Peer pressure * Shame
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == {{Wiktionary|guilty pleasure}} Category:Conformity Category:Guilt Category:Hedonism Category:Popular psychology Category:Social influence
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