The Meaning of Food Preferences in the Human Behaviour and Personalities.

Learned predisposition to choice in a favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given food is a complex and plastic trait resulting from interactions between both nutritional properties of food and individual chemosensory perception, this last modulated by personality properties and interoceptive awareness (alexithymia). We report data obtained by a total of ~700 individuals (aged 18-76) coming from 6 different small villages in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in northern Italy. Participants completed a food preferences questionnaire on 66 different foods, rating their liking of each item on a 9 point scale ranging from “extremely like” to “extremely dislike”. Standardized questionnaires were also administered to characterize subjects on selected personality traits (Temperament and Character Inventory – TCI) and alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale – TAS-20). We conducted a linear regression between the mean of all food preferences and neuropsychological traits, using sex and age as covariates. The mean of food preferences was associated negatively with TAS total score (p=7.5e-05) and externally oriented cognitive style (subitem 3 of TAS-20) (p=2.0e-07), and was positively associated with self-transcendence total score (ST) (p=5.9e-04) and spiritual acceptance (ST3) (p=6.5e-04) among TCI dimensions. We conclude that food preferences are modulated by the enduring tendency to transcend contingent sensorimotor representations (ST) on the one hand, by difficulty distinguishing between feelings and the bodily sensations of emotional arousal, and concrete thinking, often with the exclusion of emotional responses to stimuli of the other. These results can provide insight to a clearer understanding of the motivations of consumers and their effects to choice diets.