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Abstract We investigated the relationship between perceived bitterness, food disgust sensitivity, and sex. Participants completed the 8-item Food Disgust Scale and a 6- n -propylthiouracil (PROP) taster test and were categorised as PROP non-tasters, medium-tasters, or supertasters. An analysis of variance of between-subject factors sex and PROP taster status was conducted with disgust sensitivity as the dependent variable. We found a significant interaction of sex and PROP taster status on disgust sensitivity and an association between disgust sensitivity and PROP taster status in males but not in females. Our study provided new evidence on sex differences in food disgust and PROP taste sensitivity. Highlights • Chemosensory responsiveness and food disgust sensitivity are connected. • Regarding food disgust sensitivity, sex and PROP taster status interact. • New evidence on sex differences in food disgust sensitivity is provided. • New evidence on sex differences in PROP taste sensitivity is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tools that specifically measure food disgust sensitivity are scarce. This gap has been successfully filled with the recently developed eight-item version of the Food Disgust Scale (FDS short). In the present study, we tested the validity of this measure with three behavioural tasks that we designed. Participants ( N  = 108) filled in questionnaires before they tried three products as part of a behavioural task covered as tasting experiment. We presented these products with written scenarios, which aimed to induce disgust. For all three tasks, we found a significant correlation between the amount participants consumed and their FDS short score. In the first task, we presented participants with a meat product ( r  = −0.34, p  < .001); in the second task, it was a banana juice ( r s  = −0.26, p  < .01); and in the final task, we presented participants with an insect product ( r s  = −0.51, p  < .001). A regression analysis confirmed that participants’ FDS short score acted as a significant predictor for eating behaviour in the meat ( ß  = −0.26, p  < .05) and the chocolate task (odds ratio  =  0.51), however, it did not reach statistical significance in the juice task (odds ratio  =  0.66). In this paper, we present two important findings. First, we provide evidence for the influence of food disgust sensitivity on people’s eating behaviour as measured by the amount they consumed. Second, and more importantly, our data support the incremental validity of the FDS short as assessed through its correlation with three behavioural tasks and provide evidence for the suitability of self-report measures such as the FDS short. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Product colour in virtual reality impacts flavour identification in real life. • Seeing chocolate cake but eating lemon cake, 30% indicated tasting chocolate. • Product-atypical colours impeded flavour identification. The use of virtual reality (VR) in sensory science studies can offer new possibilities for experimental design. For instance, VR allows for the modification of visual product properties without changing the product composition. In a set of two augmented virtuality studies, we investigated whether the results we obtained in real-life (RL) settings were comparable to the results we obtained in a VR environment. In Study 1, we transferred an existing sensory science experiment to a VR setting. We invited 100 participants to taste two juices and a piece of cake. In the VR environment, participants saw the product either in its original colour or in a modified, product-atypical colour. After the product tasting, we asked them to identify the most dominant flavour. Participants had more difficulties identifying the flavour when the product was shown in a modified colour than when it was shown in its original colour. In Study 2, we added an RL control condition to facilitate a direct comparison between the two conditions and to verify our findings from Study 1. A chi-square test for association revealed no significant differences between the RL and VR conditions. We conclude that sensory studies can be successfully transferred to VR and obtain a generally similar pattern of results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Disgust can be elicited in a virtual environment. • Virtual disgust stimuli influence participants' behaviour. • Virtual reality can be used to introduce disgust elicitors. • Virtual reality is a powerful and promising tool for use in disgust research. This study was the first to use virtual reality for disgust research and pursued two aims. First, we explored whether it was possible to induce disgust in a virtual environment. Second, we examined the relationship between food disgust sensitivity, presence (a psychological state of "being there"), and participants' willingness to eat a food item after exposure to a virtual disgust cue. We asked 100 participants to eat chocolate and complete a tasting experiment within a virtual environment while wearing a head-mounted HTC Vive device. The control group (n = 50) saw a piece of chocolate appear in the virtual environment on a table in front of them before being asked to take and eat it. The disgust group (n = 50) saw a dog that walked across the table and stopped halfway to produce dog faeces that looked like a piece of chocolate. Subsequently, participants were asked to eat a real piece of chocolate. In both groups, participants were given the opportunity to refuse consumption. Participants in the experimental condition were more likely to refuse consumption than those in the control condition. Furthermore, in the experimental condition, we found that physical presence mediated the relationship between participants' food disgust sensitivity and willingness to eat the chocolate. Our data suggested that virtual reality is a valid way to evoke disgust for the purposes of research and that people who are disgust sensitive have more difficulty ignoring virtual disgust cues than people who are less disgust sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]