Hedonic Escalation: When Food Just Tastes Better and Better

Hedonic escalation is the increased liking of each additional bite of a palatable food. Hedonic escalation is more likely to occur when (1) a palatable food consists of a complex combination of flavors, and (2) a person is motivated to taste additional flavors on each successive bite. Consequently, hedonic escalation is more prevalent when people can identify more flavors (pilot study), attend to additional flavors on each taste trial (study 1), have an opportunity to identify an additional flavor on each taste trial (study 2), and isolate distinct flavors on each taste trial (study 3). Changes in hedonic escalation can be attributed to increased sensitization to flavors as opposed to changes in the rate of habituation (study 4). Hedonic escalation can also increase consumption (study 5) and influence food choices (study 6). Collectively, these studies show that hedonic escalation is enabled by the opportunity to identify an additional source of hedonic experience on each successive taste of a food.