Stale popcorn provides fresh view on the power of habits [View All]

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http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/sep/18/stale-popcorn-provides-fresh-view-on-the-power/


Stale bits of popcorn flavor study

By Tom Kisken
Posted September 18, 2011 at 8:59 p.m.
The popcorn served in the theater was 7 days old, rubber band-chewy and about as inviting as four hours of someone else's home movies. "Actively unpleasant," said David Neal, the psychologist who used the stale bird feed in a study on human behavior that is turning heads and stomachs. In a project conducted and funded by Duke University, researchers sent 98 people to a theater on the pretense they were participating in a study about what draws consumers to movies. They gave everyone boxes of popcorn. Some boxes had popcorn made an hour earlier; others had the week-old snack.

People who rarely or only occasionally eat popcorn at movies stayed away from the stale sample, eating much more of the fresh snack. The moviegoers who always eat popcorn in the theater, however, were different. "They ate exactly the same amount regardless if it was fresh or stale," Neal said, adding that a survey showed they realized the week-old popcorn tasted bad. They ate it because they can't sit in a theater without popcorn and their actions are controlled by habit.

"This study highlights the illusion that much of our daily behavior is controlled by what we want," he said. "Much of it is controlled by the environment and what we've done before and our memories of what we've done before."
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Very interesting study