Salt on watermelon? Relationship between hedonic responses to watermelon with salt, taste preferences, and autistic traits

Abstract

Watermelon is one of the most popular fruits in the world. In Japan, some people like to sprinkle salt on it to enhance its natural sweet taste. However, little has been known on factors related to this eating behavior. Here, we investigated the relationships between the hedonic responses to watermelon with salt, taste preferences, and the autistic traits. 90 participants joined an online questionnaire survey. Results showed that the hedonic responses to watermelon with salt was negatively correlated with preference for bitter taste. Thus, participants who less like bitter taste tended to more enjoy eating watermelon with salt. Those results provided evidence for the salt effect on filtering flavor by suppressing of the bitterness. Moreover, no autistic traits effect was found on hedonic ratings for watermelon with salt, and on preference ratings for the basic tastes. Thus, autistic traits may play little effect in some eating behaviors and taste preferences.