"Pass the ketchup, please": familiar flavors increase children's willingness to taste novel foods.

Rozin & Rozin (1981) have suggested that the addition of flavour principles (the distinctive combinations of seasonings which characterize many cuisines) may facilitate the introduction of a new staple food into a culture. That is, the reluctance of omnivores to approach novel foods can be reduced by adding the familiar flavor principle to the unfamiliar food. To test this hypothesis, we "created" flavor principles in the laboratory by exposing children repeatedly to one of two initially novel chip dips.

The effect of flavor principles on willingness to taste novel foods.

E. Rozin and P. Rozin have suggested that one of the functions of "flavor principles" (the distinctive seasoning combinations which characterize many cuisines) is to facilitate the introduction of novel staple foods into a culture by adding sufficient familiarity to decrease the neophobia ordinarily produced by a new food.