Effects of variety and repeated in-home consumption on product acceptance

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of variety on long-term product acceptance and consumption in a home-use situation. Subjects (N= 105) consumed a meat sauce once a week at dinner at home for a period of 10 weeks. Three variety groups were designed. The monotony group (N= 45) consistently received the same flavour of meat sauce across all 10 weeks; the imposed variation group (N= 30) received one from three different flavours of the meat sauce in random order, and the free choice (N= 30) in variation group was allowed to choose among three flavours of the meat sauce. Results showed a substantial increase in boredom and decline in acceptance ratings after repeated consumption. As hypothesized, this effect was the largest for the monotony group and was least pronounced in the free-choice group, with the imposed variation group in between. Consumption data were in line with these acceptance ratings; the monotony group consumed less of the food than the free-choice group over that time. In conclusion, repeated consumption of a food product only once a week at home resulted in a remarkable increase of boredom over time. The boredom effect was the largest for subjects who consistently received the same food, and was least pronounced for subjects who were allowed to choose among three different flavours of the food.