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There are known attempts to correlate the personality of an individual with their choice of a color or a shape - something which I have asked about here and am using in an app that I am delveoping. I am now starting to ask myself whether there are any formal studies that attempt to correlate common food choices with personality. I have come across a few useful ideas by simply googling for "food choice and personality". e.g. Keller & Siegrist (2015). and Zayed (n.d.)

However, neither of those articles to my mind comes close to being a formal study of the subject. In the context of my own app I am wondering whether I can augment its understanding of its user by adding - to an existing list of personality acquisition questions - a request to select from, say, images that show

  • A burger
  • An apple
  • A chocolate bar
  • A chili pepper

Given that I am using many other personality assessment measures I would imagine that even without any known prior art on the subject I will in due course be able to glean something useful from an answer here. However, I would be most grateful to anyone who might be able to point me to any formal, peer-reviewed studies on the subject.

References

Keller, C., & Siegrist, M. (2015). Does personality influence eating styles and food choices? Direct and indirect effects. Appetite, 84, 128-138.
DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.10.003 PMID: 25308432

Zayed, A. (n.d.) What Your Food Choices and Eating Habits Say about Your Personality? Retreivable from: https://www.consumerhealthdigest.com/general-health/food-choices-and-eating-habits-says-your-personality.html

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  • $\begingroup$ Zayed (n.d.) linked to Miller (2013) - an Institute for Food Technologists article which states that personality may predict if you like spicy foods. Does that not help with chilli peppers? $\endgroup$ – Chris Rogers Jun 5 '18 at 14:43
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    $\begingroup$ I just found the source article for Miller (2013). It is Byrnes, N. K., & Hayes, J. E. (2013). Personality factors predict spicy food liking and intake. Food quality and preference, 28(1), 213-221. doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2012.09.008 $\endgroup$ – Chris Rogers Jun 5 '18 at 14:50
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    $\begingroup$ @ChrisRogers Interesting paper...statistical methodology was terrible though. I wouldn't believe a word they say without any confirmation, except the result with Sensation Seeking. They have a major major jelly bean problem and make terrible statistical conclusions (i.e., p=.06 no effect! p=0.05 wow an effect!) $\endgroup$ – Bryan Krause Jun 5 '18 at 19:02
  • $\begingroup$ @BryanKrause you could use the paper as the start of a negatory answer claiming there isn't much to infer and showing how food choices has more to do with some other factor $\endgroup$ – Seanny123 Jun 5 '18 at 23:36
  • $\begingroup$ Why is that first paper not a "formal study of the subject" in your view? $\endgroup$ – Fizz Jul 1 '18 at 14:28

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