Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Food Neophobia in Young Adults: Genetic Architecture and Relation to Personality, Pleasantness and Use Frequency of Foods, and Body Mass Index—A Twin Study

  • ORIGINAL RESEARCH
  • Published:
Behavior Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Food neophobia has been studied extensively in children, but its causal origins and relationship to eating behavior in adults are not well understood. We studied genetic and environmental effects on variation in food neophobia, measured using the Food Neophobia Scale, and explored associations between food neophobia and personality, pleasantness and use frequency of food groups, and body mass index in young adult twins (N = 1175, aged 20–25 years, 54.7% women). In women, additive genetic effects (heritability) accounted for 61% of variation in food neophobia, whereas in men, shared environmental effects explained 45% of the variation. Food neophobia negatively correlated with the personality trait Openness, corrected for the structural overlap (r = −0.23), and in women, these two traits had a genetic correlation (r g = −0.39). In addition, food neophobia negatively correlated with pleasantness and use frequency of fruits and vegetables and of fish and with mean pleasantness of foods. Once evolutionarily important, food neophobia should at present be considered in nutrition counseling as a possible barrier to a balanced diet.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alley TR, Willet KA, Muth ER (2006) Motion sickness history, food neophobia, and sensation seeking. Percept Mot Skills 102:683–690

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aukes MF, Alizadeh BZ, Sitskoorn MM, Selten J-P, Sinke RJ, Kemner C, Ophoff RA, Kahn RS (2008) Finding suitable phenotypes for genetic studies of schizophrenia: heritability and segregation analysis. Biol Psychiatry 64:128–136

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bergeman CS, Chipuer HM, Plomin R, Pedersen NL, McClean GE, Nesselroade JR, Costa PT, McRae RR (1993) Genetic and environmental effects on openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness: an adoption/twin study. J Pers 61:159–179

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bouchard TJ Jr, McGue M (2003) Genetic and environmental influences on human psychological differences. J Neurobiol 54:4–45

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cooke L, Wardle J, Gibson EL (2003) Relationship between parental report of food neophobia and everyday food consumption in 2–6-year-old children. Appetite 41:205–206

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cooke LJ, Wardle J, Gibson EL, Sapochnik M, Sheiham A, Lawson M (2004) Demographic, familial and trait predictors of fruit and vegetable consumption by pre-school children. Public Health Nutr 7:295–302

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cooke L, Carnell S, Wardle J (2006) Food neophobia and mealtime food consumption in 4–5 year old children. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 3:14. doi:10.1186/1479-5868-3-14

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cooke LJ, Haworth CMA, Wardle J (2007) Genetic and environmental influences on children’s food neophobia. Am J Clin Nutr 86:428–433

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Costa PT Jr, McCrae RR (1985) The NEO personality inventory manual. Psychological Assessment Resources, Odessa, FL

    Google Scholar 

  • Costa PT Jr, McCrae RR (1992) NEO PI-R professional manual. Psychological Assessment Resources, Odessa, FL

    Google Scholar 

  • Coulthard H, Blissett J (2009) Fruit and vegetable consumption in children and their mothers. Moderating effects of child sensory sensitivity. Appetite 52:410–415

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Falciglia GA, Couch SC, Gribble LS, Pabst SM, Frank R (2000) Food neophobia in childhood affects dietary variety. J Am Diet Assoc 100:1474–1478, 1481

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Galloway AT, Lee Y, Birch LL (2003) Predictors and consequences of food neophobia and pickiness in young girls. J Am Diet Assoc 103:692–698

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jang KL, Livesley WJ, Vernon PA (1996) Heritability of the Big Five personality dimensions and their facets: a twin study. J Pers 64:577–591

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jang KL, McCrae RR, Angleitner A, Riemann R, Livesley WJ (1998) Heritability of facet-level traits in a cross-cultural twin sample: support for a hierarchical model of personality. J Pers Soc Psychol 74:1556–1565

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • John OP, Srivastava S (1999) The big five trait taxonomy: history, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In: Pervin LA, John OP (eds) Handbook of personality. Theory and research. The Guildford Press, New York, pp 102–138

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaprio J, Pulkkinen L, Rose R (2002) Genetic and environmental factors in health-related behaviors: studies on Finnish twins and twin families. Twin Res 5:366–371

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keskitalo K, Tuorila H, Spector TD, Cherkas LF, Knaapila A, Kaprio J, Silventoinen K, Perola M (2008) Three-factor eating questionnaire, body mass index, and responses to sweet and salty fatty foods: a twin study of genetic and environmental associations. Am J Clin Nutr 88:263–271

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Knaapila A, Tuorila H, Silventoinen K, Keskitalo K, Kallela M, Wessman M, Peltonen L, Cherkas LF, Spector TD, Perola M (2007) Food neophobia shows heritable variation in humans. Physiol Behav 91:573–578

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koivisto-Hursti U-K, Sjöden P-O (1997) Food and general neophobia and their relationship with self-reported food choice: familial resemblance in Swedish families with children of ages 7–17 years. Appetite 29:89–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loehlin JC, McRae RR, Costa PT Jr, John OP (1998) Heritabilities of common and measure-specific components of the Big Five personality factors. J Res Pers 32:431–453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McFarlane T, Pliner P (1997) Increasing willingness to taste novel foods: effects of nutrition and taste information. Appetite 28:227–238

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meiselman HL, Mastroianni G, Buller M, Edwards J (1999) Longitudinal measurement of three eating behavior scales during a period of change. Food Qual Pref 10:1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mustonen S, Tuorila H (2010) Sensory education decreases food neophobia score and encourages trying unfamiliar foods in 8–12-year-old children. Food Qual Pref 21:353–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neale MC, Cardon LR (2006) Methodology for genetic studies of twins and families. Kluwer Academic Publisher, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Neale MC, Boker SM, Xie G, Maes HH (2003) Mx: statistical modeling, 6th edn. Department of Psychiatry, VCU, Richmond.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paunonen SV, Haddock G, Fosterling F, Keinonen M (2003) Broad versus narrow personality measures and the prediction of behaviour across cultures. Eur J Pers 17:413–433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pliner P (1994) Development of measures of food neophobia in children. Appetite 23:147–163

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pliner P, Hobden K (1992) Development of a scale to measure the trait of food neophobia in humans. Appetite 19:105–120

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pliner P, Loewen R (1997) Temperament and food neophobia in children and their mothers. Appetite 28:239–254

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pliner P, Salvy S-J (2006) Food neophobia in humans. In: Shepherd R, Raats M (eds) The psychology of food choice. CABI Publishing, Oxfordshire, pp 75–92

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pulver A, Allik J, Pulkkinen L, Hämäläinen M (1995) A big five personality inventory in two non-Indo-European languages. Eur J Pers 9:109–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rajagopal L, Hamouz FL (2009) Use of food attitudes and behaviours in determination of the personality characteristic of openness: a pilot study. Int J Intercultural Rel 33:254–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raudenbush B, van der Klaauw NJ, Frank RA (1995) The contribution of psychological and sensory factors to food preference patterns as measured by the Food Attitudes Survey (FAS). Appetite 25:1–15

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reverdy C, Chesnel F, Schlich P, Köster EP, Lange C (2008) Effect of sensory education on willingness to taste novel food in children. Appetite 51:156–165

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rigal N, Frelut M-L, Monneuse M-O, Hladik C-M, Simmen B, Pasquet P (2006) Food neophobia in the context of a varied diet induced by a weight reduction program in massively obese adolescents. Appetite 46:207–214

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Russell CG, Worsley A (2008) A population-based study of preschoolers’ food neophobia and its associations with food preferences. J Nutr Educ Behav 40:11–19

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schickenberg B, van Assema P, Brug J, de Vries NK (2008) Are the Dutch acquainted with and willing to try healthful food products? The role of food neophobia. Publ Health Nutr 11:493–500

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuorila H, Meiselman HL, Bell R, Cardello AV, Johnson W (1994) Role of sensory and cognitive information in the enhancement of certainty and liking for novel and familiar foods. Appetite 23:231–246

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tuorila H, Lähteenmäki L, Pohjalainen L, Lotti L (2001) Food neophobia among the Finns and related responses to familiar and unfamiliar foods. Food Qual Pref 12:29–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wardle J, Carnell S, Cooke L (2005) Parental control over feeding and children’s fruit and vegetable intake: how are they related? J Am Diet Assoc 105:227–232

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams RL (2000) A note on robust variance estimation for cluster-correlated data. Biometrics 56:645–646

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the twins for participating in the study, and Mari Siltala and Eero Vuoksimaa for their excellent assistance in data collection. This study was supported by grants from the Kone Foundation (A.K. and K.S.) and the Emil Aaltonen Foundation (A.K.). Data collection from Finnish twins was supported by National Institutes of Health grant AA-12502 (R.J.R.), Academy of Finland grants 100499 & 205585 (J.K.) and 206327 (H.M.T.), the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (J.K.), and the DIOGENES (‘Diet, Obesity and Genes’), project supported by the European Union (Contract no. FP6-513946).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3500 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19119, USA

    Antti Knaapila

  2. Department of Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Antti Knaapila & Hely M. Tuorila

  3. Department of Social Research, Population Research Unit, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Karri Silventoinen

  4. Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Karri Silventoinen, Ulla Broms & Jaakko Kaprio

  5. Department of Mental Health and Alcohol Abuse Services, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

    Ulla Broms & Jaakko Kaprio

  6. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Richard J. Rose

  7. Department of Molecular Medicine, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

    Markus Perola

  8. Department of Medical Genetics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Markus Perola

  9. Institute for Molecular Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Markus Perola & Jaakko Kaprio

Authors
  1. Antti Knaapila
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Karri Silventoinen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ulla Broms
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Richard J. Rose
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Markus Perola
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jaakko Kaprio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Hely M. Tuorila
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antti Knaapila.

Additional information

Edited by Deborah Finkel.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOC 34 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Knaapila, A., Silventoinen, K., Broms, U. et al. Food Neophobia in Young Adults: Genetic Architecture and Relation to Personality, Pleasantness and Use Frequency of Foods, and Body Mass Index—A Twin Study. Behav Genet 41, 512–521 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-010-9403-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-010-9403-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation