Your Taste For Spicy Food Might Influence How Attractive You Are
Is it just us or is it getting hot in here?
According to a survey recently conducted by Frank's Red Hot, people who have higher spice tolerances "are more likely to enjoy trying new things (76%), consider themselves attractive (62%), and are more content with their lives (66%) than milder heat lovers."
And it's not just a hot sauce company saying spicy food will improve your life. Researchers have found that, along with the evolutionary advantages associated with spicy foods, building a spice tolerance provides a host of benefits for your health and even heating up your dating life.
How do spicy-food lovers spice things up?
Sure, spice seekers may find themselves attractive, but what about their dates? Researcher Jenni Miska reported in her aptly-titled paper, "Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: Food Flavors, Attraction, and Romantic Interest," that the mere act of eating spicy food can have an effect on how daters perceive the attractiveness of their dates.
For instance, female subjects of Miska's study were shown photos of men with one of three snacks (either a sweet, spicy, or a not-sweet/not-spicy snack) and asked to rank the men by physical attractiveness and romantic interest.
Miska's findings were pretty astounding: A spicy flavor was found to overwhelmingly increase romantic interest as well as physical attractiveness ratings across the subjects.
"Women in the spicy condition rated the men as significantly more attractive than those in the sweet condition," the study states. Why is that? It can be summed up by a concept called "embodied cognition," which is a fancy term that means the body influences the mind. So basically, if you order your wings extra spicy, don't be surprised if your boo seems a bit spicier to you as well.
This phenomenon can be seen in language, too. "Words such as spicy or hot tend to be associated with physical attractiveness..." Miska adds. "Similarly, words such as honey or sweetie tend to be associated with romantic relationships."
Thrill-seeking is an activity that's unique to humans. The tendency to seek out risks can be pretty hot, if you forgive our pun. So-called "sensation-seekers" (people who like rollercoasters, gambling, and Hot Ones challenges) are often seen as more attractive by partners.
Case in point: Have you ever noticed that on dating shows like The Bachelor there's always a bungee-jumping date that ends in a make-out session? That's because moments of anxiety and adrenaline actually lead to sexual attraction. And the thrill of spicy foods activates many of the same areas of the brain that light up when you partake in a risky activity like rock climbing or sky-diving.
At the end of the day, spice tolerances are also indelibly tied to our temperament and character. As Jennifer Abbasi writes in Popular Science, "Personality, researchers say, is also a factor in whether a person enjoys spicy meals and how often he or she eats them."
Plus, there's a big divide between men and women who say that they identify as a spicy food lover. A Penn State University study (that is both unsurprising and hilarious) discovered that while men were more likely to say they like eating spicy food, women were far more likely to actually enjoy it. So next time your date looks like they're sweating over their Nashville hot chicken, they might be both nervous and trying to impress you.
Similarly, your partner can have an effect on your spice tolerance, too.
Have you ever wished that dating profiles included a person's spice tolerance? You're not alone. Who you choose to date can actually have an effect on your own spice tolerance, especially if you dine out or cook together often.
For instance, heat lovers can often see a decline in their spice tolerance if they frequently share meals with someone who doesn't eat spice food. Luckily, there are many ways to find a happy medium (or mild!) for you and your partner that does not involve micro-dosing them over time with hot sauce-laced food (as one Redditor did).
Ready to turn up the heat, but don't know where to start?
Curious minds want to know! Luckily, studies overwhelmingly show that the more exposure you have to spicy food, the more you get used to the heat. Nature and nurture are both at play when it comes to someone's spice tolerance, but taking regular baby steps will allow you to gain a higher tolerance while minimizing any pain.
The website Pepper Scale suggests acquainting yourself with milder peppers (like poblanos, cubanelles, and pepperoncinis) and trying condiments like wasabi and horseradish. You can also stock up your spice-building kit by starting with beginner-friendly hot sauces like Frank's Red Hot or Texas Pete before moving on to hotter varieties. No matter where you are on your journey, keeping some cooling ingredients like milk and yogurt nearby will come in handy if you can't handle the heat (and gotta leave the kitchen).
Whether you can stand the heat or not, spice-seekers are also causing a culinary shift with products like Doritos getting spicier year after year, along with pepper-growing hobbyists producing hotter and hotter breeds.
What's true is that you're bound to build a stronger capacity to heat and spice without even knowing it, meaning your love life is could be turned up a few notches in the process. As our favorite poet (the rapper Nelly) wisely said, "It's getting hot in herre."
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