Abstract
Throughout human history, food consumption has been deeply tied to cultural groups. Past models of food preference have assumed that social concerns are dissociated from basic appetitive qualities—such as tastiness—in food choice. In contrast to this notion, we tested and found support for the novel idea that social identities can shape the evaluation of food pleasantness. 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 influenced perceived food pleasantness during consumption (Study 3). These results suggest social identity may shape evaluations of food pleasantness, both through long-term motivational components of identification as well as short-term identity salience. Thus, the influence of social identity on cognition appears to extend beyond social evaluation, to hedonic experience. We discuss implications for theories of identity, decision-making, and food consumption.
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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