想讓食物更好吃？試試轉動你的盤子
Rotating your plate as it is placed on the table may improve the taste of your food, psychologists claim.
心理學家稱，食物擺上桌後，轉動盤子，換一個方向，可能會讓食物更好吃。
People have a subconscious preference for food that points away from them, according to Oxford University experts, to the extent that it can affect the flavour.
牛津大學的專家說，人們的潛意識認爲沒有擺在自己正前方的菜更好吃，這可能影響食物的口味。
An experiment involving 12,000 people, carried out at London’s Science Museum, suggests that most people prefer their meal to be aligned facing away from them, and marginally to the right.
研究人員在倫敦科學博物館對12000位受試者進行測試，實驗結果表明，大部分人們傾向於讓食物離自己遠一點，最好擺在稍微偏右的地方。
The perfect orientation, the scientists discovered, is for food to point at 3.2 degrees clockwise, a tiny fraction to the right of the vertical axis of the plate.
科學家發現，食物擺放的最佳方位是在順時針偏右3.2度的位置，也就是在盤子垂直軸稍稍偏右。
The effect is so pronounced that people actually experience an improved taste when the alignment is correct, the psychologists claim.
心理學家表示，這個心理效應十分顯著，當食物擺放正確，人們會覺得更好吃。
The results, published in the journal Food Quality and Preference, were obtained after thousands of people took part in an experiment at the Science Museum’s ‘Cravings Exhibition’, which explores the way reward circuits in the brain that determine flavour are altered by outside influences.
該實驗結果發佈在《食物品質與偏好》雜誌上。上千人在科學博物館的“食慾展覽”上參與實驗，該展覽探討大腦中決定食物風味的回報迴路如何受到外界影響。
Charles Michel, a chef and researcher on food aesthetics at Oxford University, said many people instinctively adjust their plate when it is placed in front of them.
主廚兼英國牛津大學食物美學研究員查爾斯·米歇爾說，在食物擺上桌時如果正好擺在他們面前，許多人會不自覺地調整盤子的位置。
‘This everyday action that some of us do might hint at the fact that we all enjoy our food more when it is “oriented” in the best way possible.
“我們一些人的這個日常動作可能正好說明了一個事實，那就是當食物以最佳‘朝向’擺放時，我們會覺得更好吃。”
‘Indeed, by arranging the food to “look better”, we might be unconsciously enhancing its perceived value, and hence our enjoyment of it.’
“事實上，通過將食物擺放得‘更好看’，我們可能無意識地提高食物的感知價值，提高了食物帶來的滿足感，”
Experimental psychologist Professor Charles Spence, who contributed to the research paper, said the instinct is rooted in early human evolution.
參與了該實驗論文的實驗心理學家查爾斯·斯朋斯教授說，這種直覺源於人類進化。
Items that are directed towards the body are perceived as a threat, he thinks.他認爲，直接朝着人體擺放的物體會被認爲是威脅。
‘Something pointing towards us triggers brain-fear circuits, and this is why it might be liked less,’ Professor Spence said.斯朋斯教授說，“當有東西朝着我們擺放的時候，會觸發大腦的恐懼環路，這就是爲什麼我們不喜歡東西直接指向自己的原因，”
‘What we see automatically sets expectations about what it is that we are about to eat, and how much we think we are going to like it. ‘We also get a sense of how much effort put into dish’s preparation.“對於我們所看到的食物，心裏會自動產生關於這是什麼，以及合不合口味的預期。”我們還能感覺到廚師做這道菜花了多少心思。
‘Those expectations anchor our subsequent experience when we come to taste - hence what we see really can change what we taste.’“這些預期定位了我們之後品嚐時的味覺體驗——因此我們的所見確實能夠影響我們的味覺。”
Mr Michel added: ‘In our Western cultures, we seem to associate left with “wrong” and down with “less”, also, right with “right”, and up with “more”.米歇爾先生補充到：“在西方文化中，我們通常把左邊和‘錯誤’聯繫在一起，下邊與‘少’相關，右邊是‘正確’，上邊與‘多’相關。”
‘Also, might be that we associate left with “past” and right with “future”, because that’s the way in which we write.’
“此外，我們覺得左是‘過去’，右是‘未來’，因爲這是我們的書寫順序。”
Many food psychologists are convinced that a range of external circumstances change the way we experience and taste our food.
許多食物心理學家堅信，一些外部環境會影響我們的品嚐體驗和食物的風味。
Professor Spence’s previous work has established, for example, that a heavier glass makes a gin and tonics taste better and that a fine dining cloth will improve the flavour of a meal.
斯朋斯教授先前的研究已有成果，例如，重一些的玻璃杯裝松子酒和奎寧水能讓其更好喝，一塊漂亮的桌布能讓食物變得更美味。
He has also discovered that plastic blue spoons make food taste more salty, white spoons make food taste creamier and black spoons make it taste less sweet.
他還發現，藍色塑料湯匙能讓食物變得更鹹，白色的湯匙讓食物變得更順口，黑色湯匙讓食物變得不那麼甜。
Vocabulary
subconscious: 潛意識的
align: 排列
perceive: 認爲
tonic: 奎寧水（略有苦味的無色汽水，常與杜松子酒等調配飲用）
