Digital Commons Network^™

Comparison Of Sensory, Physiological, Personality, And Cultural Attributes In Regular Spicy Food Users And Non-Users, Mary-Jon Ludy, Richard D. Mattes

Public and Allied Health Faculty Publications

Some individuals savor spicy foods, while others avoid them. Reasons underlying this range of hedonic responses are unknown. The purpose of this study was to explore the basis for individual differences in preference for spicy foods. Regular spicy food users ( n= 13) and non-users (n= 12) were characterized for selected sensory, physiological, personality, and cultural attributes. Individual differences between users and non-users were primarily related to sensory and cultural attributes (i.e., a higher proportion of users reported consuming spicy foods since childhood and users rated spicy foods as more palatable and were better able to discriminate this burn than …