Your Childhood Decides Your Favorite Candy

There’s reason to believe that people who grew up eating Red Vines might prefer Red Vines later in life, and the same for those that grew up eating Twizzlers. It turns out basically everyone has a weirdly-strong preference when it comes to red licorice. But nobody has actually looked at this question scientifically – until now; the MinuteFood team put together a survey asking some basic questions about people’s red licorice preferences – like which candy people grew up eating. Because there’s a TON of evidence that we tend to prefer foods that we’re exposed to earlier and more often. Like, in one study, kids rated vegetables that they ate more frequently as better-tasting than those that they didn’t eat frequently – or didn’t recognize at all. Another found that the more often adults tasted various types of juices, the better they liked them. And a landmark experiment – one of my all-time favorite studies – found that babies whose mothers drank carrot juice during pregnancy and the first few months after birth – in other words, they were exposed to carrot flavor in utero and via breastmilk – liked carrot-flavored cereal better at 6 months old than babies whose mothers didn’t drink carrot juice. And that’s exactly what we saw in the data; the red licorice brand you grew up eating is an incredibly strong predictor of which one you like now. Out of the 900+ respondents, only 33 people grew up eating one candy and now prefer the other. So, because I grew up in a Twizzlers family, I was basically pre-destined to like Twizzlers; same with my husband and Red Vines. But this doesn’t explain why people seem to absolutely HATE the other brand. Because Red Vines and Twizzlers aren’t all that different – they’re both fruity, twisty, and – as a lot of people mentioned, no matter which side they’re on – “plastic-y” and “artificial.” In other words, Red Vines and Twizzlers seem similar enough that – if you’re trying the one you didn’t grow up eating – you probably expect it’s going to be what you’re used to. But the two products are just different enough that you don’t get what you expect. And research has shown that we don’t tend to like things – especially foods – that defy our expectations. Two of my favorite comments got at this idea: “Twizzlers are like Red Vines but with no redeeming qualities” and Red Vines taste “like someone tried to recreate a Twizzler from memory while having dementia and Covid at the same time.” For most of us, Twizzlers and Red Vines seem to fall into an uncanny valley – an uncandy valley, if you will – where they’re just different just enough from our expectations to cause utter revulsion.