Effects of Sample Sequence on Food Preferencesa,b

SUMMARY Hedonic-scale preference tests were run with four types of meat. Each one compared two non irradiated (“good”) samples with two irradiated (“poor”) samples. Three effects were demonstrated: a) position effect (the later samples in the series were rated lower); b) contrast effect (serving “good” samples first lowered the ratings for “poor” samples); and c) convergence effect (serving “poor” samples first lowered the ratings for “good” samples). Contrast and convergence effects were shown to be independent of position effect.