Exposure effects and sensory-specific satiety

Abstract

Sensory-specific satiety (SSS) is a decrease in pleasantness of an eaten food compared to a sensorially dissimilar uneaten food. Repeated exposure to a previously novel stimulus can result in either enhancement (mere exposure effects) or attenuation (monotony) of hedonic responses. This study explored whether repeated exposure to previously novel foods modified the degree of SSS for those foods. Thirty-two men and 32 women completed hedonic and sensory ratings of two foods before and after consuming a portion of one of them (SSS paradigm) on two test days spanning 2 weeks. Participants were allocated to one of the four conditions, and on each of the intervening 13 days they consumed either a 50 g portion of the eaten food (E1); the uneaten food (E2); a third distracter food (C1); or no food (C2). Baseline pleasantness ratings of the foods did not differ by condition on the second test day, but changes in pleasantness ratings for the uneaten food were lower in the exposure conditions (E1 and E2) than control conditions (C1 and C2).