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A Specialized Psychological Adaptation for Preferring Spicy Foods

Joonghwan Jeon 1

1경희대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Why do people prefer the strong and pungent tastes of spicy foods? The antimicrobial hypothesis of spices proposes that the use of spices is to reduce food-borne diseases and food poisoning. Remarkably, Paul Sherman, the leading proponent of the antimicrobial hypothesis, and the recent “cultural evolutionists” (also called “gene-culture co-evolutionists”) view that the preference for spicy foods is a sheer product of cultural transmission via imitation and social learning. Contrary to the prevailing view, I suggest that the preference for spicy foods is a specialized psychological adaptation well-engineered by natural selection to solve the adaptive problem of avoiding food-borne pathogens over human evolutionary history. This hypothesis produces a number of novel, testable predictions as follows: 1) participants primed with a possible food spoilage (for example, hot temperature or a filthy hygiene) should prefer spicier foods than control participants, 2) stressed participants should prefer spicier foods than controls, and 3) people with a heightened disease sensitivity would tend to prefer spicier foods than other people. Future studies are needed to empirically verify these predictions, thus contributing to the consilient understanding of the use of spices.

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