Yuck! Broccoli is usually low on the list of popular dishes. Especially with children. For several years now, researchers have believed they knew why this was the case. The bacteria in human saliva are to blame. When these bacteria come into contact with broccoli, a sulfur-like smell is created. The good news: People can get used to this taste – and at some point even find it very delicious.
Why we do the same as others
But there are other reasons why broccoli doesn’t go down well with everyone. Researchers suspect that our aversion could also have something to do with our fellow human beings. What we like is adapted to our family and the environment in which we grow up. This means: We observe what relatives and friends eat and copy it.
And this is exactly the behavior that appears to occur when eating broccoli: Researchers recently examined the extent to which young adults can be influenced when it comes to vegetables. To do this, they filmed test subjects eating broccoli. They then showed these videos to other test participants.
The result: If the test participants saw a video in which a person was disgusted, they were later more likely to reject the broccoli themselves.
Question marks appear
And vice versa? If the test subjects ate their broccoli with relish, this did not result in any increased interest among the test participants. Surprisingly, the imitation effect did not come into play. In order to understand this process even better, the experiment was repeated with a cucumber. Whether the test subject felt disgust while eating, however, played no role at all.
In order to better understand our sense of taste, the researchers want to carry out several more experiments of this kind in the future.