Effects of variety and repeated in-home consumption on product acceptance

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of variety on long -term product acceptance and consumption in a home-use situation. Subjects (N = 105) consumed a meat sauce once a week at dinner at home for a period of 10 weeks. Three variety groups were designed. The monotony group (N = 45 ) consistently received the same flavour of meat sauce across all 10 weeks; the imposed Variation soup (N = 30) received one from three different flav ours of the meat sauce in random order, and the free choice (N = 30) in var iation group was allowed to choose among three flavours of the meat sauce. Results showed a substantial increase in boredom and decline in acceptance ratings after repeated consumption. As hypothesized, this effect was the la rgest for the monotony group and was least pronounced in the foe-choice gro up, with the imposed variation group in between. Consumption data were in l ine with these acceptance ratings; the monotony group consumed less of the food than the free-choice group over that time. In conclusion, repeated con sumption of a food product only once a week at home resulted in a remarkabl e increase of boredom over time. The boredom effect was the largest for sub jects who consistently received the same food, and was least pronounced for subjects who were allowed to choose among three different flavours of the food. (C) 2000 Academic Press.