What’s it called where a person (or animal) develops an aversion to a certain kind of food after getting sick from it? I know there’s a specific term for this because it’s possible to acquire the aversion after only getting sick once.
I’m wondering because I pulled an all-nighter a few weeks ago that involved four or five pots of coffee, got sick, and now I can’t stand the stuff anymore.
Thanks in advance.
Taste aversion learning, which is a form of classical conditioning. It is also known as the Garcia effect after the person who first published the research on it.
Nausea is such a powerful conditioner that often only one trial is required for learning (e.g., throw up after one fish sandwich when you’re 10 and you may never order one at McDonald’s again!).
“The Buttersotch Schnapps Effect”
“Sauce béarnaise syndrome” is the term I’m familiar with - apparently discovered when a scientist could no longer eat sauce béarnaise after getting sick, even though he knew that he was sick because of something else.
This is not ordinary conditioning, since the sickness need not occur immediately upon eating the food for it to work, and it creates an extremely strong effect even with only one exposure. The brain has a well-honed instinct to avoid dangerous food.
All the above make perfect sense, but what about the good old gargle ? I’ve puked my ring loads of times after big beer sessions, yet the next day I’m surprisinglu eager for another beer of the same make / taste et cetera.
So what’s the explaination for this. I mean aside from alcoholism… erk.