Individual Differences in Preferences: Sensory Segmentation as an Organizing Principle

Abstract

Individual differences in hedonics and preference pervade the chemical senses (Ekman & Akesson, 1964; Moncrieff, 1966; Pangborn, 1970), evidencing themselves both qualitatively and quantitatively. The pattern relating stimulus intensity to degree of liking differs from subject to subject. The difference may be one of degree (so that one subject always likes the stimulus set more than another subject does), or one of pattern (so that the two subjects differ in terms of the specific stimulus level at which liking peaks). Individual differences are not simply artifacts of and emergent phenomena from an “artificial” test environment. Well stocked supermarkets offer the same general product in several flavors, flavor intensities, etc.