The effect of flavor principles on willingness to taste novel foods

E. Rozin and P. Rozin have suggested that one of the functions of "flavor p rinciples" (the distinctive seasoning combinations which characterize many cuisines) is to facilitate the introduction of novel staple foods into a cu lture by adding sufficient familiarity to decrease the neophobia ordinarily produced by a new food. We tested this idea experimentally, predicting tha t the addition of a familiar flavor principle to a novel food would increas e 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 willingnes s to taste it. In a pilot study, subjects selected from a list, a sauce whi ch was high in familiarity and liking for them. They then rated their willi ngness to taste one novel and one familiar food with the sauce and one of e ach 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 wi llingness 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 fo od increased subjects' willingness to taste it tin comparison to the same f ood 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 fo od adventurousness. (C) 1999 Academic Press.