Willingness to try new foods impacts perceptions of sexual unrestrictedness and desirability

You are what you (are willing to) eat: Willingness to try new foods impacts perceptions of sexual unrestrictedness and desirability. Hannah K. Bradshaw et al. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 182, November 2021, 111082. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111082

Highlights

• Willingness to try new food provides cues of sexual desirability and mating strategy.

• Targets open to new food are rated as more desirable and more sexually unrestricted.

• Findings are specific to openness to new food, not general openness to new things.

• Targets open to new food are rated as less sexually disgusted.

• Inferences of targets' sexual disgust predict evaluations of their mating strategy.

Abstract: Here, we examine the impact of one's willingness to try new foods on others' perceptions of sexual unrestrictedness and desirability as a sexual and romantic partner. Guided by insights from past research, we hypothesized that targets who are willing to try new foods would be perceived as being more desirable sexual and romantic partners (Study 1) and as being less sexually restricted (Studies 2–4) than targets who are unwilling to try new foods. Results supported this hypothesis and further indicated that this pattern is specific to willingness to try new foods, not general willingness to try new things (Study 3). Additionally, results revealed that the relationship between willingness to try new food and inferences of sexual unrestrictedness is driven by perceptions of target's relatively lower levels of sexual disgust sensitivity and not by the belief that the target is in better health or has superior immune function (Study 4). Together, these results suggest that people's willingness to try new foods may impact how they are perceived by prospective dates and mates.

Keywords: Food neophobiaSociosexual orientationConsumption stereotypes