As an example, she cites research on so-called food neophobia.
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2025 4:10 am
The same problem with lab-grown chicken. Upside's chicken tastes like chicken because it's made from chicken muscle cells. But there's no blood in the product, which is why it's this weird yellow-gray color. It's made from one type of cell, whereas the chicken thigh you buy at the grocery store might contain dozens of different types.
An exact copy tastes good. But, as Morin points out, taste is a psychological process, not just a mechanical one. It’s not just about the nutrients, fats, and texture; it’s about how people think and feel about the food they’re eating. Wine tastes better to people if they believe it’s an expensive brand. Cheese and yogurt will taste less good if they’re marketed as low-fat.
"Even if they made it 100% perfect, meaning that no one mexico number data could tell it was real, I think there would be a lot of barriers that have nothing to do with cost or technology, but everything to do with people's attitudes, thoughts and psychology towards meat and what's grown in a petri dish," says Janet Tomiyama, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"People don't like to eat anything new," she says. "It's an evolutionary defense mechanism we have so we don't accidentally eat a poisonous berry."
She also points to evidence that consumers prefer products that appear natural. People want food that comes “from the farm, not the lab.”
And yet, despite our tendency to seek out natural foods and avoid the new and strange, we are also remarkably omnivorous.
We seem willing to eat just about anything: endangered animals, Doritos, high-fructose corn syrup, hot dogs, blue cheese. And despite all the myths about our ancestors hunting antelope with spears, they got their protein largely in the same way that our modern-day lower primate cousins do: by eating bugs.
An exact copy tastes good. But, as Morin points out, taste is a psychological process, not just a mechanical one. It’s not just about the nutrients, fats, and texture; it’s about how people think and feel about the food they’re eating. Wine tastes better to people if they believe it’s an expensive brand. Cheese and yogurt will taste less good if they’re marketed as low-fat.
"Even if they made it 100% perfect, meaning that no one mexico number data could tell it was real, I think there would be a lot of barriers that have nothing to do with cost or technology, but everything to do with people's attitudes, thoughts and psychology towards meat and what's grown in a petri dish," says Janet Tomiyama, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"People don't like to eat anything new," she says. "It's an evolutionary defense mechanism we have so we don't accidentally eat a poisonous berry."
She also points to evidence that consumers prefer products that appear natural. People want food that comes “from the farm, not the lab.”
And yet, despite our tendency to seek out natural foods and avoid the new and strange, we are also remarkably omnivorous.
We seem willing to eat just about anything: endangered animals, Doritos, high-fructose corn syrup, hot dogs, blue cheese. And despite all the myths about our ancestors hunting antelope with spears, they got their protein largely in the same way that our modern-day lower primate cousins do: by eating bugs.