Not what they order. How they chew.
Researchers Jeltema and Beckley spent ten years observing how people manipulate food in their mouths. They found four types:
#Crunchers
Bite hard and fast. When the crunch is done, the food is gone. They are the fastest eaters at the table.
#Chewers
Want sustained resistance. They will turn a crunchy food into a moist mass just to keep chewing longer.
#Smooshers
Press food between tongue and palate, slowly, gently, barely using teeth.
#Suckers
Hold food in their mouth and extract flavor before swallowing. They are the slowest eaters of all.
76% of Americans are Crunchers or Chewers.
77% of Chinese consumers are Smooshers or Suckers.
Completely different oral cultures.
What fascinates me is that none of this is conscious. #Smooshers had the lowest self-awareness of how they processed food. Most people cannot describe their mouth behavior at all. It runs deeper than #language & #preference.
#Control. #Patience. #Sensation seeking. Tolerance for #Ambiguity. These are personality words. But they show up first in the mouth.
Next time you share a meal with someone, watch how they chew. You might be reading a #personality profile written in real time.
Source
Jeltema, M., Beckley, J., & Vahalik, J. (2015). Model for Understanding Consumer Textural Food Choice. Food Science & Nutrition, 3(3), 202-212.
