Taste

Abstract

Rozin coined the phrase the omnivore's dilemma to encapsulate what an omnivore must do to survive: avoid toxins and take in nutritious food. This chapter is organized to show what is known about how taste contributes to this biological imperative. We begin with the anatomy and physiology of taste and show how nature uses chemosensory pleasure (liking for beneficial substances and disliking for dangerous ones) to promote survival. One of the most important distinctions for this area is between hard-wired and learned affect. Historically, belief in hard-wired affect has often given way to understanding how learning accomplished what seemed to be hard-wired.