Pucker Up: Tasting Something Sour Is Linked to Taking Risks

Getting out of your comfort zone may be as easy as eating something sour, according to Discover. A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports links tasting sour substances with being more prone to risk-taking.

The study examined the relationship between taste and behavior in 168 participants in two countries using a computerized measurement tool called the Balloon Analogue Risk-Task (BART). Participants have to click a mouse button to inflate a balloon on the screen. They accumulate cash rewards as the balloon expands, but if it explodes, they lose everything—meaning that with each click, they could earn more, but they run the risk of losing their money.

Before they began the task, the participants drank a cup of water that potentially contained one of five different basic taste solutions—bitter, salty, sour, sweet, and umami—or plain water with no taste added. They also completed questionnaires designed to measure personality traits like impulsiveness and risk-taking. They played the gambling game twice.

The researchers found that the sour taste was associated with risk-taking, while sweet and umami tastes made participants more likely to play it safe. Salty and bitter tastes seemed not to have an effect at all on behavior. Participants who drank the sour solution pumped the balloons around 40 percent fuller than those who drank the sweet solution or the umami solution, on average. The sweet group hesitated the most before choosing whether to pump up the balloon or cash out.

To make sure that the results weren’t too skewed by cultural perceptions of taste, the same two trials took place both in the UK and in Vietnam. The latter has some of the highest MSG consumption in the world, potentially counteracting the fact that people in the UK might not be accustomed to the taste of umami. In the Vietnamese study, the sour taste was linked to the highest risk taking, but sweet and umami tastes also seemed to promote risky behavior.

In a third test that took place in the UK, participants were briefed on the average point that the randomized balloon explosions took place. Rather than being totally uncertain when the balloon would explode, they were told it typically exploded around 64 pumps. Again, the sour group took more risks. This held true whether the participants were found to be more analytic decision-makers or more intuitive decision-makers.

While it might not be a great idea to start binging on Warheads if you’re a gambling addict, the researchers write that “at least in the context for the BART task involving potentially winning small amounts of money, sour does not provoke people to indulge in reckless risky habits.” Instead, they write, it “has unique attributes to modulate risk-taking and may encourage risk-averse people to take new opportunities and potentially lead to a happier life.” They suggest that people with high anxiety or who are otherwise painfully averse to taking risks might want to consider adding more sour substances to their diet.