Hunger-induced finickiness in humans.

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effect of hunger on finickiness in humans. Subjects (a total of 157 undergraduate female dieters and non-dieters) were food-deprived and then subsequently either given a snack (not-hungry group) or left food-deprived (hungry group) before being given ad libitum access to either good-tasting or bad-tasting (quinine-adultered) milkshake. Common sense predicted that hungry subjects would drink more milkshake than would not-hungry subjects, regardless of milkshake palatability. Hungry subjects did in fact drink more of the good-tasting milkshake than did not-hungry subjects, but they also drank less of the bad-tasting milkshake. We discuss possible reasons why hunger might increase rejection of bad-tasting food, as well as the limiting conditions of the effect.