Innovation Influences Liking for Chocolates Among Neophilic Consumers

The fear of trying new foods is a major barrier for entry for innovative ingredients, foods, flavors, or cuisines into the market place. We explored the relationship between perceived innovation and liking for chocolates and degree of neophobia. Line scales were used to measure: innovation, liking, and perceived dollar value for three chocolate confections. One was a traditional confection (palette d′or), and two others were designed to be more innovative (white miso with dark chocolate and white chocolate with candied black olive). An analysis of variance found that panelists (n=44) perceived significant (p\u3c0.01) differences among the chocolates in innovation, and liking, but not dollar value or estimated caloric content. The chocolate rated as the most innovative was also rated as the least liked. This finding is significant since the mean neophobia score of our subjects was quite low and very few of them would have been classified as neophobic. This current work suggests that acceptance of innovative new foods is dependent, in part, upon factors that transcend neophobic mindsets. Chefs and product developers should be aware of the fact that even among neophilic consumers who are quite willing to consume novel foods, there is a possibility that a food might be too innovative, resulting in a negative impact on liking

Color-Odor Interactions: A Review and Model

Certain colors are seen as corresponding to, and thus appropriate to, certain odors (e.g., red for cherry odor). When colors accompany odors, our perceptions of the odors are changed. Appropriate colors often affect our perception of the odors differently from inappropriate colors. This paper discusses the literature on color-odor correspondences including possible causes of these correspondences. It then reviews findings on the influence of color on odor identification, odor discrimination, odor intensity, and odor pleasantness. Color\u27s effect on both orthonasal and retronasal olfaction is discussed. A model for how color exerts its effects on odor is proposed

Contextual Influences On Liking and Preference

The paper addresses the topic of how much an individual likes a stimulus and also how much that individual prefers it to other stimuli. Research is reviewed showing that the context in which the stimulus is presented affects both liking and preference judgments. Having subjects think of the context stimuli and the test stimuli as being in different categories reduces the impact of the context stimuli on the ratings of the test stimuli and might be used to avoid such context effects in determining liking of and preferences for stimuli

Effect of Color On Expected and Experienced Refreshment, Intensity, and Liking of Beverages

The effect of color on the expected and experienced refreshment, intensity, and liking of lemon, mint, and vanilla beverages was studied. Subjects rated the expected and actual taste of brown lemon and mint solutions as less refreshing than the tastes of differently colored solutions of the same flavor. However, the refreshment ratings (expected and actual) of the brown vanilla beverage were not different from those of the vanilla beverages of other colors. Liking ratings also depended on color in a manner similar to that of the refreshment ratings. Intensity ratings also varied with color. However, unlike when subjects smell solutions rather than taste them, colored solutions were not judged as more intense than colorless ones. In fact, the clear solutions were judged as strongest

The Great is the Enemy of the Good: Hedonic Contrast in a Coursed Meal

This study investigates whether hedonic contrast occurs between foods served in different courses within a meal. In particular, does the hedonic value of an appetizer affect the hedonic value of the subsequently eaten main course? Hedonic contrast is known to occur in laboratory settings, but so far it has not been demonstrated in ecologically valid, real-world meal situations. To that end, this study was conducted in an ecologically valid setting - a training restaurant in a culinary school. Two groups of subjects (Ns = 35 and 29) were served the same pasta main course after either a good or mediocre bruschetta appetizer. The pasta was rated worse (and hedonically negative, M = -9.4) by subjects eating the good appetizer than by subjects eating the mediocre one (who judged it as hedonically positive, M = 17.4). This suggests that the hedonic value of an appetizer can influence the degree to which a diner likes the main course of a meal. Implications for the phenomenon of hedonic contrast and for meal services in restaurant settings are discussed

Nobody\u27s Satisfied: Effects of Abnormal Eating Behaviors and Actual and Perceived Weight Status On Body Image Satisfaction in Malesand Females

The present study replicated Zellner, Harner, and Adler (1989) in finding that all young adult women rate their Ideal f gures (what they would like to look like) and Opposite figures (what they believe the opposite sex finds attractive) thinner than their Current figures (how they believe they currently appear). While Low and High Eat scoring women chose an Ideal figure thinner than their Current figure, only High Eat women (indicating abnormal eating behaviors) chose an Ideal figure thinner than what they think men find attractive (Opposite). The present study also found that not only abnormal eating behaviors, but current weight status influences body image perception in young adult males and females. Both overweight men and women want to be thinner. Correct weight men (as determined from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company height and weight chart, 1983) wish to be heavier, while correct weight women (also determined from the Metropolitan Life Insurance chart) wish to be thinner. Many correct weight males believe they are underweight and so desire to be heavier, whereas females have a tendency to overestimate their size and therefore desire to be thinner. However, even when subjects perceive themselves as the correct weight they are dissatisfied. Almost all of the females who think they are the correct weight (35 out of 40) want to be thinner and 71% of the males either want to be thinner (7 out of 24) or heavier (10 out of 24)

Effects of Eating Abnormalities and Gender On Perceptions of Desirable Body Shape

Men and women differ when choosing the figure drawings that most resemble (a) their own current figures (CURRENT), (b) their ideal figures (IDEAL), and (c) the figure thought most attractive to the opposite sex (OPPOSITE) (Fallon & Rozin, 1985). In the present experiment, women with high Eating Attitude Test (EAT) scores, indicating abnormal eating patterns, choose differently from those with low scores. All women\u27s IDEAL and OPPOSITE figures are thinner than their CURRENT figures, whereas men rate all three nearly identically. Only the high-scoring women choose an IDEAL figure thinner than their OPPOSITE. This suggests that whereas men are satisfied with their figures, women desire to be thinner than they think they are, and women with abnormal eating behaviors desire to be even thinner than what they think men find attractive

Eat Your Veggies: A Chef-Prepared, Family Style School Lunch Increases Vegetable Liking and Consumption in Elementary School Students

School lunches provide an opportunity to introduce children to healthy foods in ways that might result in both short- and long-term healthier eating. This study compared vegetable consumption and liking for vegetables in 8–10 year old children at two schools, one with a traditional lunch service (61–84 students in School B) and the other (24–26 students in School A) which devoted one day each week to the “Eatiquette Program”, which incorporates chef-prepared food, non-disposable plates and cutlery, and family style service including an adult at each table. Consumption of target vegetables (cauliflower and sweet potato “fries”) was recorded in the lunchroom at the beginning and end of the school year, and a subset of children provided rankings and ratings of liking for those and six other vegetables in separate assessments at those times. Consumption of sweet potato fries was higher in children in the Eatiquette lunch than in the children at the control school at the beginning of the year. Although initial consumption of the cauliflower was not significantly higher in the Eatiquette lunch than in the control school, consumption increased from the beginning to the end of the school year for children eating the Eatiquette lunch. In addition liking for and ranking of the cauliflower increased from the beginning to the end of the year for the children in the Eatiquette (n = 6) program but not for those eating the traditional lunch (n = 22). The Eatiquette program increased consumption of and liking for vegetables. Aspects of the Eatiquette program including food palatability and the presence of an adult at each table may be responsible for these increases