Scientists Investigate How People React Emotionally To Edible Insects | Pest Control Tucson
Back in 2013 the United Nations called upon the world to address the problem of food sustainability. Experts at the UN stressed the use of edible insects as an alternate source of sustenance. Ever since that day at the UN back in the summer of 2013 the Internet has been riddled with stories about edible insects. You can find Internet articles that explain everything from edible insect preparation to the environmental and health benefits that could result from the use of edible insects. However, two billion people in the world already eat insects regularly. It is mostly just westerners who are not used to the practice of eating bugs. Naturally, scientifically minded people are beginning to wonder if westerners could ever get used to the practice of eating bugs, and there has already been at least one study that has investigated this topic.
A study conducted by researcher, Muriel Verain, found that people possess similar attitudes when it comes to eating whole insects vs. powdered insects. This is surprising since you would suspect that many people would not mind consuming bugs in powdered form, but apparently people find it just as gross as eating whole bugs. Verain took note of the various attitudes that people took towards beans, seaweed and insects, and not surprisingly, people found insects to be the most distasteful of the three choices.
Verain eventually gathered a large sample of volunteers from all over the world in order to gauge their emotional reactions to edible-insects. The respondents could respond with happiness, pride or satisfaction, as well as with negative emotions, such as anger, disgust, guilt or sadness. When the respondents were presented with the opportunity to consume unprocessed and whole insects, they responded with just as much negativity as they demonstrated when the respondents were presented with unprocessed and unrecognizable bugs. However, what is most surprising is the overwhelmingly negative reaction that people had towards the idea of using insects as feed for livestock. It seems that westerners are so grossed out by edible insects that they don’t even want pigs to eat them.
Do you believe that westerners would turn to edible insects if other food sources became scarce? Or would many people suffer without the protein?
