DISCOVER Magazine. Science, Technology and The Future
Current Issue
Subscribe Today »
  • Renew
  • Give a Gift
  • Archives
  • Customer Service
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Newsletter
  • Health & Medicine
  • Mind & Brain
  • Technology
  • Space
  • Human Origins
  • Living World
  • Environment
  • Physics & Math
  • Video
  • Photos
  • Podcast
  • RSS
Discoblog
« Let Loose the Coyotes? Chicago Embraces Rat-Hunting Predators
LHC Particle Physicists to World: Our New Album Drops December 6th »

NCBI ROFL: Garlic: a sensory pleasure or a social nuisance?

4243909193_973ba379db“A total of 100 female and male shoppers in Helsinki were interviewed to evaluate beliefs, attitudes and norms concerning the consumption of garlic. In a subsequent postal questionnaire, the annoyance related to the smell of garlic, compared with other social odors, was also measured. The most frequent beliefs about garlic pertained to its good taste, unpleasant smell, and healthiness. Users and non-users showed distinctly different belief patterns. Sweat and alcohol were considered the most annoying social odors, and garlic and perfume/aftershave the least so. The Fishbein-Ajzen model, in which individual beliefs and their evaluations as well as subjective norms were used as predictors, explained 35-36% of the variation of the reported consumption and intention to use garlic. The predictive power of the model rose to 56-62% when past behavior was included as a third independent variable. Although the predictive power of attitudes was greater than that of subjective norms, the latter were also significant predictors. Thus, use of garlic is a somewhat unusual form of food-related behavior in that it is controlled by both attitudes and normative factors.”

garlic

Photo: flickr/ginnerobot

Related content:
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Garlic: a way out of work.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Does garlic protect against vampires? An experimental study.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Oral malodor and related factors in Japanese senior high school students.

WTF is NCBI ROFL? Read our FAQ!

Share

November 16th, 2010 7:00 PM by ncbi rofl in eat me, NCBI ROFL, rated G | 3 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

  • http://www.zmescience.com Andrei Mihai

    Wow ! I’m really surprised to see people find garlic not that annoying. However, probably Finnish shoppers aren’t representative for the whole world, it would be interesting to see this questionnaire asked on a larger scale.

  • Chris

    I love garlic

  • plutosdad

    Garlic is good when fresh or while cooking, but offensive an hour after eating.





    • About the Blog

      Discoblog is DISCOVER's compendium of quirky, funny, and surprising science news from the edge of the known universe. It's written by Veronique Greenwood and Valerie Ross. Email tips and suggestions to vgreenwood [at] discovermagazine [dot] com.

      Discoblog also includes the daily feature NCBI ROFL, in which two prone-to-distraction grad students post real scientific articles with funny subjects. Email your tips to ncbirofl [at] gmail.com. Follow the ROFL feed here.

    • Twitter

      Follow @discovermag
    • Facebook

    • Twidget

      Add Tweets
    • Archives

      Archives

      • May 2012
      • April 2012
      • March 2012
      • February 2012
      • January 2012
      • December 2011
      • November 2011
      • October 2011
      • September 2011
      • August 2011
      • July 2011
      • June 2011
      • May 2011
      • April 2011
      • March 2011
      • February 2011
      • January 2011
      • December 2010
      • November 2010
      • October 2010
      • September 2010
      • August 2010
      • July 2010
      • June 2010
      • May 2010
      • April 2010
      • March 2010
      • February 2010
      • January 2010
      • December 2009
      • November 2009
      • October 2009
      • September 2009
      • August 2009
      • July 2009
      • June 2009
      • May 2009
      • April 2009
      • March 2009
      • February 2009
      • January 2009
      • December 2008
      • November 2008
      • October 2008
      • September 2008
      • August 2008
      • July 2008
      • June 2008
      • May 2008
      • April 2008
      • March 2008
      • February 2008
      • January 2008
      • December 2007
      • November 2007
      • October 2007
      • September 2007
      • August 2007
      • July 2007
      • June 2007
      • May 2007
      • April 2007
      • February 2007
      • January 2007
      • December 2006
      • November 2006
      • October 2006
      • September 2006


  • Kalmbach Publishing Co.

    Copyright © 2012, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

    Privacy - Terms - Reader Services - Subscribe Today - Advertise - About Us