Quote:
Originally Posted by MaDalton
i would strongly disagree - it's clearly a cultural thing
in some asian countries people love eating insects, try that in the US or Europe
raw fish in japan - i'm sure you can count sushi as "acquired taste"
in sweden they eat fish that has been rotting buried under the earth for weeks - it smells like you could use it as WMD
inuit eat air dried whale or seal - i'm not sure if you would like it
and i could go on for hours
|
"cultural thing" = "learned behavior"
i've ate both seal and whale by the way,... they both taste like ass.
of course we have other various barriers to what we eat... i.e. negative associations with smells, textures, flavors etc. but that's not the same as eating lute fisk, which is disgusting beyond description and saying "its an acquired taste"
the opposite is also true. how do you know an alcoholic likes scotch because of the flavor or because he is an alcoholic or just trying to self medicate? a variety of factors play a role in what we find palatable.
few seem to distinguish between tolerating something out of habit/peristent exposure to it and actually learning to appreciate/enjoy something for what it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_taste
An acquired taste often refers to an appreciation for a food or beverage that is unlikely to be enjoyed by a person who has not had substantial exposure to it, usually because of some unfamiliar aspect of the food or beverage, including a strong or strange odor (e.g. stinky tofu), taste (such as bitter teas or hot spices), or appearance. Acquired taste may also refer to aesthetic tastes, such as taste in music or other forms of art. The relationship between taste in food and taste in art is subject to much discussion.[1] For more on non-gustatory taste, see the article taste (sociology).
The process of acquired taste looks very much like a form of adaptive preference formation (as described by Jon Elster). An individual deliberately changes preferences in order to make them more compatible with some situation.