In a blind taste test do people prefer pate or dog food To i

In a blind taste test, do people prefer pate or dog food? To investigate, Hohannon et al. (2010) presented 18 college-eductated adults with unlabeled samples of dog food (Newman\'s Own Organics and Canned Turkey and Chicken) and four meat products meant for humans (duck liver mousse, pork liver pate, liverwurst, and Spam). Participants were asked to rank their preferences. Two of 18 participants ranked the dog food first, whereas the other 16 participants chose one of ther other items. Based on theise results, can we conclude that people are less likely to prefer dog food over all human food than would be expected by chance?

Solution

Subjects significantly disliked the taste of dog food compared to a range of comestible
meat products with similar ingredients. Subjects were not better than random at
identifying dog food among five unlabeled samples. These two results would seem to be
paradoxical.

One possibility is that slight differences in appearance and texture skewed the
guesses.

Regardless of the cause of the distribution of guesses, we can be confident that the
comparison of taste was free of prejudice. Even with the benefits of added salt, a smooth
texture, and attractive presentation, canned dog food is unpalatable compared to a range
of similar blended meat products.

We conclude that, although human beings do not enjoy eating dog food, they are
also not able to distinguish its flavor profile from other meat-based products that are
intended for human consumption.