The Allure of Tide Pods: Why They Look (and Smell) Good Enough to Eat

Psychological Influence

            According to a study reported by Medical News Today (McNamee, 2014), “…when we are hungry, our bodies boost the performance of our sense of smell in order to improve our chances of finding food.” The author of the study Dr. Giovanni Marsicano stated that: “Increasing smell allows better retrieval of food sources, but it also increases the attractiveness of certain odors. I would imagine that there is a sort of positive feedback: you are hungry, you smell more and, therefore, you look better for food and you are more attracted by it.”

There are also certain colors that attract humans and trigger our hunger. Studies have shown that warm colors like red, yellow, and orange can trigger hunger, but so does green and violet, according to foodpyramid.com (Slansky, 2013) and colormatters.com (Morton, J. n.d.).