Abstract
Throughout human history, food consumption has been deeply tied to cultural groups. In the current paper, we present three studies that demonstrate social identification influences evaluations of food pleasantness that underlie food choice. Specifically, individual differences in social identification (Study 1) as well as experimentally manipulated identity salience (Study 2) were associated with the anticipated tastiness of identity-relevant foods. We also found that identity salience shaped perceived food pleasantness during consumption (Study 3). Moreover, shifts in anticipated and perceived food pleasantness mediated changes in overall desire (Studies 1 and 2) and willingness-to-pay for foods (Studies 3). These findings suggest that social identity can shape evaluations of food pleasantness, revealing a novel process whereby social identification can influence food choices. We discuss implications for theories of identity, decision-making, food consumption, and public health.
Highlights
When people eat Canadian Maple Syrup for breakfast, Pad Thai for lunch, or Southern Chicken Fried Steak for dinner, their food choices often reflect deeply held cultural identities
Past models of food preference have assumed that social concerns are dissociated from basic appetitive qualities—such as tastiness—in food choice
Past models of food preference have assumed that social concerns are dissociated from basic appetitive qualities of foods—such as tastiness—in food choice (Rangel, 2013)
Summary
When people eat Canadian Maple Syrup for breakfast, Pad Thai for lunch, or Southern Chicken Fried Steak for dinner, their food choices often reflect deeply held cultural identities. These associations transform food consumption into a socially meaningful behavior (Barthes, 1997). It is possible that social identities can shape the evaluation of food pleasantness itself. This possibility carries real-world implications, as the consumption of identity-relevant foods can yield negative health outcomes, as in the case of the American diet (see Guendelman, Cheryan, & Monin, 2011). We examined whether social identities influence evaluations of food pleasantness
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