What Your Favorite Food Says About You, According to Research

Ah, food. Where would we be without the savory delight of roasted chicken wings? Or the sweet sensation of melting chocolate? We eat every day, but did you know what you decide to eat – especially your favorite food – says a lot about who you are? Your favorite food can reveal a lot about your personality. In fact, the decision between a hotdog and a churro could mean the difference between life or death.

-Not really. But hey, it could show what type of person you are to others, people also will view your personality differently depending on what foods are your favorite.

So, if you’d like to know what kind of person you are, based off what food you ultimately always tend to crave, this is the article for you.

You Like Sweet Foods – Especially Chocolate

Hhhhmm, so you got your hand down the cookie jar don’t ya? I thought so. You love sweet foods and you aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty to get a taste of those sweet chocolate chip cookies every now and then, huh? Well, while you may not be agreeable about how much sweet food you eat, you are in everything else.

According to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found that people view those who were associated with sweet foods as more agreeable, friendly, and just a pleasant person all-around. The research is one of many studies that show what little habits reveal a subtle aspect of your personality.

Researchers from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, St. Xavier University in Chicago and North Dakota State University conducted another study which revealed that those who chose to eat a piece of chocolate rather than a non-sweet food, were found to likely volunteer more and help others in need.

Aren’t they just the sweetest?

You Take Risks & Enjoy Spicy Foods

A study by the Institute of Food Technologists from researcher Nadia Byrnes revealed that if you enjoy risk taking and intense stimulation, you likely like spicey foods as well. In the study, Byrnes assessed participants using the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking (AISS), a personality test to assess if you indeed are sensation-seeking, and presumed to contribute to risk preferences.

Subjects were given an active ingredient in chili peppers and had to rate how much they liked it. Those who enjoyed the food despite the increasing burn, where found to have higher scored on the AISS test!

So, you like to take risks, huh? That’s pretty, pretty cool. I mean, even if it is just eating a spicy taco.

Your Go-To Snack is Potato Chips

A study by Alan Hirsch. neurological director from the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, Chicago, found that job satisfaction is related to your favorite savory snack. “A person’s job selection reflects his essential essence and his personality,” he says. “Food choices can provide insight in personality and character structure.”

While it may seem silly to have a snack-personality test, Alan Hirsch says “it’s much less goofy than using the Rorschach test to determine personality.” He explains that Inkblot perceptions “are based on occipital lobe activity, in the visual cortex of the brain. But the preference for taste is in the olfactory cortex, in the limbic lobe, which is the emotional part of the brain.” To Hirsch, studying personality through emotions is much more logical.

According to Hirsch, it seems if you love potato chips, you are successful and ambitious. If you often find yourself eating out of a family size bag of chips? You also have high expectations of others, and yourself and can get frustrated by life’s inconveniences. You are extremely competitive as well, which likely aids you on your journey to success. According to Hirsch, those who prefer potato chips are “the most aggressive, the go-getters, and the ones that never accept a no.”

Snacking on Pretzels

Do you often wish you had a delicious pretzel to snack on? You’d choose a bowl of crunchy pretzels over any snack? If so, you likely easily grow bored of routine and seek novelty in your life according to Hirsch’s study.

Your decisions are based on your intuition and passion. It’s your emotion that leads your life choices as opposed to logically breaking down a decision. This is especially true for your love life, as you pursue romance, you of course let your heart lead the way. You are excited by any challenge that comes your way, especially one on eating an entire bag of pretzels.

Tortilla Chips Are Your Spirit Animal – Er, Food

Ah, the deliciously warm taste of a buttered tortilla. What’s better? They make them in chip form! Tortilla chips! I can’t get enough of them. If you love tortilla chips you are likely a “humanitarians who [is] often distressed by inequities and injustices of society,” according to Hirsch. And? Odds are you’re a perfectionist.

Crunch! Me? Crunch! Perfectionist?? Crunch-crunch! Let me handle something. Hold on a sec – I said bake the tortilla for eighteen minutes not twenty! Crunch. Where were we?

Cheese. Delicious, Soft, Melty, Splendid Cheese…

Love cheese? Then you are likely “formal, conscientious and always proper,” according to Hirsch’s study. Aren’t you so proper with the uh… bit of uh… cheese… – you got some, uh, cheese in your teeth. Not that conscientious, are we?

Bring on the Meat

If you love meat, then according to Hirsch it looks like you are the type who is “gregarious,” and “generous to a fault.” Guess what? You’re also the type to think of another’s comfort before your own. Awww. So nice. You’ll risk your own comfort to please those around you.

Ya Like Crackers, and May Find Romance Online??

If your snack of choosing always comes down to the irresistible crackers, then you are “contemplative and thoughtful,” based on Hirsch’s studies. You base all your decisions on “logic rather than emotion.” Bizarrely enough, Hirsch claims that “those who prefer crackers may easily find themselves romantically involved in an Internet relationship.” Oooh, interesting. So you don’t mind a date over the internet over a bowl of crackers, huh? Aren’t you the romantic type.

Fruits and Vegetables Are the Apple to Your Pie, Or uh… Cucumber to Your Salad?

If you are conscientious of your eating habits and like to eat a healthy delicious salad or two, topped off with some yummy fruits, then you are have an open view and personality according to a 2015 study published in the journal Appetite. You are willing to try new experiences and do new things! If you favor eating more healthy items as opposed to meat, you likely have a conscientious personality.

You Adore High-calorie Foods

If you choose the high-calorie foods over the healthy option, most of the time? You’re likely the neurotic type. The same 2015 study published in the journal Appetite, found that neurotic people ate more high-calorie foods including sweets and engaged more in emotional eating. How are you not supposed to eat an entire bag of Cheeto Puffs during the unstable and intense finale of Breaking Bad?

It’s a God-dang masterpiece!

So, what is your favorite food? And does your personality match up? Let us know in the comments! We wanna know! Thanks for reading. And be sure to check out some of our other great articles on psychology and food- er… not food, just psychology. 😊

Written by Michal Mitchell

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter at @jackycoocoo for more articles, celebrity interviews, original poetry and more.

Check out my article: “The Five Texting Styles That Can Reveal A Lot About Your Personality“

References

• Meier, B. P., Moeller, S. K., Riemer-Peltz, M., & Robinson, M. D. (2012). Sweet taste preferences and experiences predict prosocial inferences, personalities, and behaviors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(1), 163–174. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025253
• Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). (2013, July 17). Personality may predict if you like spicy foods. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 16, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130717141722.htm
• Keller, Carmen, and Michael Siegrist. “Does Personality Influence Eating Styles and Food Choices? Direct and Indirect Effects.” Appetite, Academic Press, 13 Oct. 2014, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195666314004735.
• North Dakota State University. (2011, November 23). People with a ‘sweet tooth’ have sweeter dispositions. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 16, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111018212346.htm
• Alperstein, Ellen. “Snack Food for Thought.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 29 Mar. 2000, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-mar-29-cl-13645-story.html.
• Cookist. “This Is What Your Favorite Foods Say About Your Personality.” Cookist.com, Cookist, 15 Oct. 2018, www.cookist.com/this-is-what-your-favorite-foods-say-about-your-personality/.
• Person. “Sweet Tooth Linked to Pleasant Disposition: Study.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 21 Oct. 2011, www.reuters.com/article/us-personality-tastes/sweet-tooth-linked-to-pleasant-disposition-study-idUSTRE79K4UO20111021.
• Dysart, Jessica. “What Your Favorite Food Says about You.” Considerable, Considerable, 29 Apr. 2019, www.considerable.com/health/diet/favorite-food/.