Attentional bias for vegetables is negatively associated with acceptability and is related to sensory properties

• Published in: Food quality and preference 2022-03, Vol.96, p.104429, Article 104429
• Main Authors: Agovi, Herdis, Pierguidi, Lapo, Dinnella, Caterina, Viggiano, Maria Pia, Monteleone, Erminio, Spinelli, Sara
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attention; Emotions; Implicit methods; Sensory; Vegetables
• ISSN: 0950-3293; 1873-6343
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104429

•Attentional bias for vegetables is negatively associated with acceptability•Attentional bias was higher for vegetables with critical sensory properties•PROP supertasters showed higher reactions times for vegetables than PROP non-tasters•Neophobia was not associated with a higher attentional bias toward vegetables•Implicit and explicit methods contribute to better understand vegetable acceptability Understanding why many individuals dislike vegetables is relevant to develop effective strategies to change food behaviors promoting healthier choices. The influences of sensory properties in the development of food preferences are well known. Attention as well may play a role in this process. Indeed, attention enhances information processing of emotionally salient objects or events by selecting them from the environmental context in which they are embedded. This study was aimed at investigating the relationship between acceptability of vegetables, food neophobia and taste responsiveness (measured as responsiveness to 6-n- propylthiouracil-PROP) and the attentive responses to vegetables that differ in sensory properties. 120 adults (20–24 years old, 74.2% women) were recruited and characterized for Food Neophobia and PROP responsiveness. To assess the interferences between emotional and attentional processes a food version of the Emotional Stroop Task was used. Attentional bias was measured through reaction times (RTs) to word stimuli, which included 16 vegetables characterized by generally appealing (e.g. ‘sweetness’, ‘mildness’) or unappealing (e.g. ‘bitterness’, ‘astringency’) sensory properties, and 16 emotionally neutral objects presented as control. A clear association between vegetable liking scores and sensory properties was found in this study, confirming the categorization of appealing and unappealing vegetables. Furthermore, results showed significantly higher RTs for vegetables than for neutral objects, demonstrating that vegetables were more emotionally salient than objects. Furthermore, the interference scores, computed as the differences between average RTs to unappealing/appealing vegetable words and average RTs to neutral words, for vegetables with unappealing sensory properties were higher than those for vegetables characterized by appealing sensory properties, indicating a greater attentional bias for unappealing vegetables. A strong inverse correlation between liking scores and RTs (r = -0.83) was found. No effect of food neophobia and PROP s