想让食物更好吃？试试转动你的盘子

Rotating your plate as it is placed on the table may improve the taste of your food, psychologists claim.

心理学家称，食物摆上桌后，转动盘子，换一个方向，可能会让食物更好吃。

People have a subconscious preference for food that points away from them, according to Oxford University experts, to the extent that it can affect the flavour.

牛津大学的专家说，人们的潜意识认为没有摆在自己正前方的菜更好吃，这可能影响食物的口味。

An experiment involving 12,000 people, carried out at London’s Science Museum, suggests that most people prefer their meal to be aligned facing away from them, and marginally to the right.

研究人员在伦敦科学博物馆对12000位受试者进行测试，实验结果表明，大部分人们倾向于让食物离自己远一点，最好摆在稍微偏右的地方。

The perfect orientation, the scientists discovered, is for food to point at 3.2 degrees clockwise, a tiny fraction to the right of the vertical axis of the plate.

科学家发现，食物摆放的最佳方位是在顺时针偏右3.2度的位置，也就是在盘子垂直轴稍稍偏右。

The effect is so pronounced that people actually experience an improved taste when the alignment is correct, the psychologists claim.

心理学家表示，这个心理效应十分显著，当食物摆放正确，人们会觉得更好吃。

The results, published in the journal Food Quality and Preference, were obtained after thousands of people took part in an experiment at the Science Museum’s ‘Cravings Exhibition’, which explores the way reward circuits in the brain that determine flavour are altered by outside influences.

该实验结果发布在《食物品质与偏好》杂志上。上千人在科学博物馆的“食欲展览上参与实验，该展览探讨大脑中决定食物风味的回报回路如何受到外界影响。

Charles Michel, a chef and researcher on food aesthetics at Oxford University, said many people instinctively adjust their plate when it is placed in front of them.

主厨兼英国牛津大学食物美学研究员查尔斯·米歇尔说，在食物摆上桌时如果正好摆在他们面前，许多人会不自觉地调整盘子的位置。

‘This everyday action that some of us do might hint at the fact that we all enjoy our food more when it is “oriented in the best way possible.

“我们一些人的这个日常动作可能正好说明了一个事实，那就是当食物以最佳‘朝向’摆放时，我们会觉得更好吃。

‘Indeed, by arranging the food to “look better, we might be unconsciously enhancing its perceived value, and hence our enjoyment of it.’

“事实上，通过将食物摆放得‘更好看’，我们可能无意识地提高食物的感知价值，提高了食物带来的满足感，

Experimental psychologist Professor Charles Spence, who contributed to the research paper, said the instinct is rooted in early human evolution.

参与了该实验论文的实验心理学家查尔斯·斯朋斯教授说，这种直觉源于人类进化。

Items that are directed towards the body are perceived as a threat, he thinks.他认为，直接朝着人体摆放的物体会被认为是威胁。

‘Something pointing towards us triggers brain-fear circuits, and this is why it might be liked less,’ Professor Spence said.斯朋斯教授说，“当有东西朝着我们摆放的时候，会触发大脑的恐惧环路，这就是为什么我们不喜欢东西直接指向自己的原因，

‘What we see automatically sets expectations about what it is that we are about to eat, and how much we think we are going to like it. ‘We also get a sense of how much effort put into dish’s preparation.“对于我们所看到的食物，心里会自动产生关于这是什么，以及合不合口味的预期。我们还能感觉到厨师做这道菜花了多少心思。

‘Those expectations anchor our subsequent experience when we come to taste - hence what we see really can change what we taste.’“这些预期定位了我们之后品尝时的味觉体验——因此我们的所见确实能够影响我们的味觉。

Mr Michel added: ‘In our Western cultures, we seem to associate left with “wrong and down with “less, also, right with “right, and up with “more.米歇尔先生补充到：“在西方文化中，我们通常把左边和‘错误’联系在一起，下边与‘少’相关，右边是‘正确’，上边与‘多’相关。

‘Also, might be that we associate left with “past and right with “future, because that’s the way in which we write.’

“此外，我们觉得左是‘过去’，右是‘未来’，因为这是我们的书写顺序。

Many food psychologists are convinced that a range of external circumstances change the way we experience and taste our food.

许多食物心理学家坚信，一些外部环境会影响我们的品尝体验和食物的风味。

Professor Spence’s previous work has established, for example, that a heavier glass makes a gin and tonics taste better and that a fine dining cloth will improve the flavour of a meal.

斯朋斯教授先前的研究已有成果，例如，重一些的玻璃杯装松子酒和奎宁水能让其更好喝，一块漂亮的桌布能让食物变得更美味。

He has also discovered that plastic blue spoons make food taste more salty, white spoons make food taste creamier and black spoons make it taste less sweet.

他还发现，蓝色塑料汤匙能让食物变得更咸，白色的汤匙让食物变得更顺口，黑色汤匙让食物变得不那么甜。

Vocabulary

subconscious: 潜意识的

align: 排列

perceive: 认为

tonic: 奎宁水(略有苦味的无色汽水，常与杜松子酒等调配饮用)