Researchers: Personal Values Deceive Taste Buds

Advertising

Which tastes better: a veggie burger or a burger made with beef? It all depends upon your values, according to a new research project that was just published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

The report's authors Michael W. Allen (University of Sydney), Richa Gupta (University of Nashville), and Arnaud Monnier (National Engineer School for Food Industries and Management, France) conducted a series of studies that examined the symbolic meaning of foods and beverages.

They discovered that what influenced participants was what they thought they had eaten rather than what they actually ate.

Meat has an association with social power, and people who scored high in the authors’ Social Power Value Endorsement measure believed that a meat-based item tasted better than a vegetarian alternative, even when both products were actually identical (one was misrepresented).

Similarly, participants who supported the values symbolized by Pepsi (Exciting Life, Social Power, and Recognition) gave a more favorable rating to the product they thought was Pepsi—even though they were drinking the low-price Woolworth cola.

The participants were informed they would taste either a beef sausage roll or a vegetarian alternative roll, and they would drink either a Pepsi or a Woolworth Homebrand cola. While, some received the item, they were told they would receive others. They then filled out a questionnaire about values and taste, along with their current food and soft drink consumption.

“Our present findings may have implications for efforts to promote better eating habits,” write the authors.

“Heavy meat eaters claim that they eat meat because it tastes better than other foods, such as meat substitutes. Our results challenge that claim. Participants who ate the vegetarian alternative did not rate the taste and aroma less favorably than those who ate the beef product. Instead, what influenced taste evaluation was what they thought they had eaten and whether that food symbolized values that they personally supported … strategies that might persuade heavy meat eaters to change their diet include changing the cultural associations of fruits and vegetables to encompass values that meat eaters endorse (e.g., power and strength), or challenging heavy meat eaters’ assumptions about what tastes good by using in-store (blind) taste tests or showing them results of studies such as this one.”