Is an Oreo cookie better when pulled apart?
The answer might be yes, but not because a separated cookie has more flavor.
Those who prefer the lift-and-lick method might not know it, but they're performing a ritual. Same with people who peel an apple from left to right, fold a piece of pizza in half before they eat it, or tap a soda can before opening it. These small, simple acts make food taste better. Even carrots.
That reflects the findings of a study by researchers from the University of Minnesota and Harvard on how rituals affect food.
In tests that paired rituals with specific foods, study participants reported that "the flavor tasted more pungent, and people took longer to eat the foods, a sign of savoring," said lead researcher Kathleen Vohs, a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. "They rated the experience as better, and were willing to pay more to do it again."
Rituals, acts typically repeated in the same manner, are used on special occasions and in ceremonies to heighten the experience and to connect us to one another and to the past. A food-related ritual can be anything from popping a Champagne cork to serving the Thanksgiving cranberries in Great-Grandmother's cut-glass bowl.
Vohs, Carlson doctorate candidate Yajin Wang and two Harvard professors collaborated on a study they called "Rituals Enhance Consumption."
In the first experiment, some of the participants broke a wrapped chocolate bar in half, unwrapped one half, ate it, then unwrapped the other half and ate that.
The other participants could eat the chocolate bar any way they pleased. The first group "spent more time eating and enjoyed it more and were willing to pay more for the food," Wang said.