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Finding new and exciting ways to eat regular meals could help break the boredom and make it more enjoyable, a new study suggests.
The researchers discovered that unconventional eating methods – like eating popcorn with chopsticks – alter the experience and give the impression that food is tasted for the first time.
Robert Smith, an assistant professor of marketing at Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University and co-author of the study, said, "When you eat popcorn with chopsticks, you pay more for it." be careful and you are more immersed in the experience.
"It's like eating popcorn for the first time."
The researchers compare the dining experience in "black" restaurants where people eat in complete darkness.
Mr Smith said: "It may not be something special about the darkness that makes us appreciate food more.
"It may be the fact that eating in the dark is unusual."
To learn more about the phenomenon, the team conducted several experiments, some of which involved eating popcorn in different ways.
In one test, 68 participants were divided into two groups. The first group ate 10 grains of popcorn using their hands, while the second group received chopsticks but managed to eat only half.
The subjects were asked to rate their experience, according to their taste for popcorn, the flavor of the snack and the pleasure that she had to eat.
According to the researchers, people who ate popcorn with chopsticks said they enjoyed more than those who used their hands.
The experience was repeated with the same volunteers and this time the team found that no matter how they ate it, everyone enjoyed the popcorn as well.
Mr. Smith said, "This suggests that chopsticks stimulate pleasure because they provide an unusual first experience, and not because they are a better way to eat popcorn."
The team also conducted similar experiments with water, telling participants to drink it using different methods, and found that those who drank water in new ways enjoyed it more. than those who consumed it normally.
Smith said the results could be applied in daily meals, for example, by finding different ways to consume more vegetables.
He added, "It may be easier to give the impression of being new than you think.
"It's also a lot cheaper to find new ways to enjoy the things we have rather than buy new things."
The results are published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
– Press Association
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