If you like a lot of spice on your food, chances are you’re a high-risk taker with a love for adventure and being bold, accorinding to a new study.
The research from Penn State University, presented at the 2013 Institute of Food Technologies annual meeting, showed a distinct link between people who preferred spicy foods and those who engage in high risk-taking behaviour.
In a study of 200 participants aged between 18 and 45, the research team tested the person using Arnett’s Inventory of Sensation Seeking (AISS) test. The test determines one’s level of risk taking behaviour, first measuring the participants on their preferences for thrill.
The questions included things like listening to loud music, watching highly suspenseful movies, public speaking, gambling and standing on the edge of something high and looking down.
The team then took the preferences and compared the results to the subjects’ love of spicy foods. The results showed that those who scored higher on the AISS test had higher preferences for spicier foods.
Speaking about the results, Dr. Alan Hirsch of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation told NBC News, that those who eat spicy food are prone to the same “adrenaline deficiencies” feelings that risk takers are.
Hirsch outlined that the spicy foods could be a link to nostalgia of adventures taken, trips abroad and breaking from the norm of everyday life.
