The Effect of Flavor Principles on Willingness to Taste Novel Foods

Abstract

E. Rozin and P. Rozin have suggested that one of the functions of “flavor principles” (the distinctive seasoning combinations which characterize many cuisines) is to facilitate the introduction of novel staple foods into a culture by adding sufficient familiarity to decrease the neophobia ordinarily produced by a new food. We tested this idea experimentally, predicting that the addition of a familiar flavor principle to a novel food would increase individuals» willingness to taste it, in comparison to their willingness to taste the same food in the absence of the flavor principle. Since people have little reluctance to approach familiar foods, addition of a familiar flavor principle to a familiar food should have little effect on willingness to taste it. In a pilot study, subjects selected from a list, a sauce which was high in familiarity and liking for them. They then rated their willingness to taste one novel and one familiar food with the sauce and one of each with no sauce. Subjects did not actually see any foods—the familiar and novel foods were simply described—and they were aware that they would not actually be tasting any foods. In the study proper, subjects rated their willingness to try each of the four food/sauce combinations described above. In this study, they actually saw the foods they were rating and were under the impression their ratings would determine what they would taste later in the study. In both studies, the addition of a familiar sauce to a novel food increased subjects» willingness to taste it (in comparison to the same food with no sauce) while the addition of a sauce to a familiar food either had no effect or decreased subjects» willingness to taste it. In the pilot study, the “flavor principle” effect interacted with subjects» levels of food adventurousness.