Taste of Danger

Sensation seeking is a facet of impulsivity that leads individuals to seek out novel and provocative experiences for the sake of taking part in that experience. Sensation seeking, which has been found to be at least partially based in biology, has also been found to relate to certain preferences for food and other substances, such as alcohol. Further, sensation seeking has been found to correlate with the acquired capability for suicide. Given that taste perception, and one's tasting status (i.e., nontaster vs. taster vs. supertaster) is also rooted in biology, a further elaboration of the relationship between the above variables is warranted. The current study focused on four hypotheses: (1) sensation seeking would vary according to taste perception; (2) sensation seeking would mediate the relationship between taste perception and acquired capability; (3) taste perception would interact with food preference to predict acquired capability; and (4) taste perception would interact with consumption of alcohol to predict acquired capability. Hypothesis three was partially supported, in that supertasters who consume certain foods that are known to be more unpleasant to them reported a higher level of acquired capability than their nontaster or taster counterparts. Implications of these findings, as well as future directions, are addressed.