Think You Know How Ripe You Like Bananas? Think Again

Image: Flickr/Rick HarrisDo you know what you like? That may sound like a dumb question, but disentangling all the different reasons for loving one thing and hating another can be tricky. Take bananas, for instance. Many people pronounce a clear preference for a certain level of ripeness when it comes to their bananas. But is this preference related to the actual taste of bananas of different ripeness, or is due to other cues, such as the shelf life of the banana? Well, here comes the science! These researchers compared people's preferences for peeled and unpeeled bananas of varying ripeness -- either just turning yellow, or yellow with brown spots. Despite a clear stated preference for non-spotted bananas, if the participant didn't see the peel, there was no difference in overall liking of the two kinds of bananas. The authors suggest that people think they like less ripe bananas because they ...