Eat Popcorn with Chopsticks?!

🧠 Psych - 149/200

Hello Reader,

This is a very very familiar yet surprisingly new thing that has been also been found in researches.

So, why should you eat popcorn abnormally or with a chopsticks, as they say it?

The reason is Hedonic Adaptation.

What is it?

The excitement of that first car purchase wears off, the thrill of the promotion gives way to the anxiety of handling the responsibilities that came with it.

Psychologists call this phenomenon hedonic adaptation—the idea is that no matter how good something makes us feel, most of the time we drift back to where we started, emotionally-speaking. [3]

Example:-

Popcorn with chopsticks is a thing. Did you know that?

In one study, they asked 68 participants to eat some popcorn. While half were told to eat the normal way, one kernel at a time, the rest used chopsticks.

It was found that those who ate with chopsticks enjoyed the popcorn a lot more than the others, even though both groups were told to eat at the same slow pace.

This is because when something seems new, people pay more attention to it. And when people pay more attention to something enjoyable, they tend to enjoy it more. [2]

Why do I need to know?

As mentioned in above example as well as in a series of studies, it has been found that consuming things in unconventional ways enhances enjoyment of them.

The bottom line is that variety is the spice of life, not just in what we do but also how we do it.

Knowing this can help both businesses and customers maximise enjoyment. [1][2]

References & Studies: -

1. http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/1024500/volumes/v45/NA-45

2. https://www.all-about-psychology.com/hedonic-adaptation.html

3. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-science-success/201208/how-keep-happiness-fading

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