Hedonic Escalation: When Food Just Tastes Better and Better
作者研究了“享乐升级”现象，即每多吃一口美味食物，喜欢程度反而增加。通常人们会因重复刺激而习惯化（越吃越不觉得好吃），但作者发现，当食物风味复杂且人们有动机去品尝新风味时，就会发生享乐升级。通过6个实验，作者发现：能识别更多风味（预实验）、注意每口的新风味（实验1）、有机会每口识别新风味（实验2）、每口分离出不同风味（实验3）时，享乐升级更明显。实验4表明，这种升级源于对风味的敏感化增强，而非习惯化速率变化。实验5和6显示，享乐升级会增加进食量和影响食物选择。总之，享乐升级的关键是每吃一口都有机会发现新的享乐来源。
Hedonic escalation is the increased liking of each additional bite of a palatable food. Hedonic escalation is more likely to occur when (1) a palatable food consists of a complex combination of flavors, and (2) a person is motivated to taste additional flavors on each successive bite. Consequently, hedonic escalation is more prevalent when people can identify more flavors (pilot study), attend to additional flavors on each taste trial (study 1), have an opportunity to identify an additional flavor on each taste trial (study 2), and isolate distinct flavors on each taste trial (study 3). Changes in hedonic escalation can be attributed to increased sensitization to flavors as opposed to changes in the rate of habituation (study 4). Hedonic escalation can also increase consumption (study 5) and influence food choices (study 6). Collectively, these studies show that hedonic escalation is enabled by the opportunity to identify an additional source of hedonic experience on each successive taste of a food.