acquired liking
concept / concept-acquired-liking
獲得嗜好
Acquired liking is an increase through eating experience in a positive response to a food property that was initially neutral or aversive.
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Reading the bitterness
Acquired liking is an increase through eating experience in positive response to a food property initially neutral or aversive. Studies differ on whether mere repeated exposure suffices or an association between flavor and a post-ingestive reward (nutritional or pharmacological) is necessary. In a caffeinated-drink study, the acquisition and expression of increased liking were reported to track the contingency between caffeine and fasting state, consistent with reward association rather than exposure alone. By contrast, a systematic review and meta-analysis of vegetable-liking interventions mainly in children found that simple repeated exposure without a contingent reward improved vegetable liking (standardized mean difference 0.35), whereas flavor-nutrient conditioning yielded lower intake than repeated exposure (standardized mean difference -0.45, p=0.04, 3 comparisons, 101 participants). A post-ingestive nutritional reward added no benefit in that field. The domains differ in pharmacological activity, so acquired liking need not have a single mechanism.
A cultural example is an ethnobotanical study using semi-structured interviews with 31 residents of Ikaria, Greece. The researchers argued that 「個人が苦味への嗜好を発展させるには、一種の学習過程が必要である」 (in translation: "a sort of learning process is required for an individual to develop an appreciation for bitterness"). They recorded older residents' view that adding lemon to bitter wild greens (chorta) was an essential culinary practice. The study's main focus was dietary patterns in a Blue Zone and longevity context; the account of learning bitterness and cooking habits is only a portion of that work.
A review of learning and liking presents an earlier study in which frequent canned-coffee drinkers rated bitterness and retronasal aroma more strongly than infrequent drinkers. The review argues that regular consumption increases familiarity with coffee and sensitivity to its sensory attributes. It also describes a CATA cheese study of Korean consumers: for initially unfamiliar Emmental, Gorgonzola, and Parmigiano Reggiano, negative terms such as bitterness, off-flavor, and imbalance were frequently selected, but their selection frequency fell after repeated consumption.
Sources for this overview
Checked for this overview: Used as context for the suggested learned association with post-ingestive effects.
Acquisition and extinction of flavour preferences conditioned by caffeine in humans
Checked for this overview: Used as evidence for reward association through the contingency of caffeine and fasting state.
Checked for this overview: Used as evidence for the opposite-direction standardized mean difference in vegetable studies.
Bitter Is Better: Wild Greens Used in the Blue Zone of Ikaria, Greece
Checked for this overview: Used as evidence for the discussion of learning among 31 Ikaria residents.
Checked for this overview: An earlier study presented as showing stronger bitterness ratings among habitual canned-coffee drinkers. / Finding that frequency of selecting bitterness terms for cheese fell after repeated consumption.
Follow the connections
acquired liking →is documented in→ horta vrasta
Hypotheses and recipe candidates for this entry are on the Japanese page.
Structured claims — open a section to read each claim's confidence, evidence and limits
Sensory (2)
Scope: Stratum: literature (a secondhand citation within a review).
Note: A secondhand citation. Content in which Hong 2025 (a review, full text already read) cites Gotow et al. 2015; the original (Gotow et al. 2015) has not been read.
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concept-acquired-liking —has_perceived_bitterness_associated_with→ "The source reports that frequent consumers of canned coffee beverages rate bitterness and retronasal aroma more strongly than infrequent consumers, and argues this is because daily consumption in everyday life increases familiarity with coffee, which in turn raises sensitivity to sensory attributes."Scope: Stratum: literature (a secondhand citation within a review).
Note: A secondhand citation. Content in which Hong 2025 (a review, full text already read) cites Go et al. 2017; the original (Go et al. 2017) has not been read.
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concept-acquired-liking —has_perceived_bitterness_associated_with→ "In a CATA-method cheese survey of Korean consumers, negative sensory characteristics such as bitterness, off-flavors, and poor balance were strongly selected for Emmental, Gorgonzola, and Parmigiano Reggiano, which were initially unfamiliar, but the frequency of selecting these negative terms decreased after repeated consumption."Mechanism and receptors (1)
Scope: The acquisition of liking for bitter foods and novel foods in humans
Note: For caffeinated beverages, reward association plus motivational-state dependence is supported, while for vegetables, liking rises from reward-free repeated exposure alone, and no additional benefit from flavor-nutrient conditioning is found (intake even shows a lower SMD of -0.45). The phenomenon (whether liking can be acquired) is separated out into each claim, and this claim addresses only the mechanism. The mechanism may differ by domain (presence or absence of a pharmacological reward).
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concept-acquired-liking —requires→ "Not mere exposure alone, but the association of flavor with a post-ingestive reward (nutritional or pharmacological)"Culture (1)
Scope: Greece, Ikaria Island; ethnobotanical study of wild leafy vegetables (chorta) through semi-structured interviews (n=31).
Note: As the researchers' own analysis, it states 「個人が苦味への嗜好を発展させるには学習過程が必要」 (in translation: “a sort of learning process is required for an individual to develop an appreciation for it”). It records that elderly residents described adding lemon to bitter boiled leafy vegetables (chorta) as 「料理上の必須」 (in translation: “this is consistently perceived as a culinary 'must' by elderly community members”). It connects to existing wild-leafy-vegetable (horta) assets. Descriptions of efficacy in the Blue Zone/longevity context are deliberately excluded from this claim.
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concept-acquired-liking —is_documented_in→ dish-horta-vrasta