Why Do Some People Like Spicy Food?

At the dinner table, digging into a spicy curry can send someone lunging for a glass of water or milk, their tongue seemingly on fire, lips tingling, and forehead dotted with sweat beads. At the same time, the person sitting next to them may gobble the same curry happily, eyes dry and unflinching.

Why some people seem to like spicy-tasting foods while others do not is a question that has intrigued scientists for decades. Researchers obtained some clues about spicy food preferences by interviewing and observing people during their mealtimes and conducting experiments with animals. Evidence suggests that a variety of factors including people’s previous exposure to spices, cultural experiences, and personality dictate whether they like the burning sensation that spicy foods induce.

Why Does Spicy Food Burn?

Spicy foods such as chili peppers contain the chemical capsaicin, which binds to the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1 receptor) on pain-sensing neurons, providing a sensation of burning.¹ While heat generally activates TRPV1, capsaicin can have the same effect without altering the temperature.

“When you bite into a red-hot chili pepper…your mouth doesn't actually get hot,” said Paul Breslin, a biologist who studies the genetic basis of human oral perception at Rutgers University and the Monell Chemical Senses Center. “It's making your mouth respond as if it were hot by an illusion of a chemical that activates the same receptor that would respond if it were physically hot.”

Why Do People in Some Parts of the World Consume More Spicy Food?

While phylogenetic analyses indicate that chili peppers are native to the Americas, they are found all over the world.² This worldwide distribution makes it unlikely that people from certain populations carry genes that make them tolerate spicy food better, said Breslin. “To have chili peppers have that kind of penetration into the culture of so many different cultures around the planet tells me that there's much more going on here than genetics.”

Ranier Gutierrez, a neuroscientist who studies how the brain encodes and responds to tastes at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute, believes there is a strong cultural component to populations consuming spicy food. “Culinary cultures are important for human behavior,” he said. “[There is] social transmission of food preference.”

Seeing others eat a certain food may nudge one to try it too. Indeed, when scientists gave rats an option between spicy cinnamon- and sweet cocoa-flavored diets, the animals almost always chose the latter.³ However, observing some rats eat cinnamon-flavored food prompted others to choose the cinnamon-flavored cup over the cocoa-flavored one.

Why Do Some People Like Spicy Food and Others Don’t?

Even within one population, some people may like chilis while others may not. However, those who like spicy food are not insensitive to the irritation it produces.⁴ “Everyone experiences heat and maybe some people say, ‘Oh, that's painful. I don't like pain.’ And other people say, ‘Oh, that's painful. I love pain,’” said Breslin.

While some might like the burning feeling that chilis induce, others might feel good when that sensation stops, said Gutierrez. “Removal of the pain is also rewarding.”

Consistent with this, food scientists found that people who are more responsive toward rewards and positive outcomes are more likely to enjoy eating chilis.⁵ People who pursue novel, complex and intense experiences and are willing to take risks to seek these out also tend to like spicy food.

At a biological level, the number of capsaicin receptors people express may influence their sensitivity to spicy tastes. “There are people that are super tasters [who] have more receptors for taste. They turn out to be more picky and less able to eat hot pepper, or like hot pepper [less],” said Gutierrez. Conversely, those who have had repeated exposure to chilis may have lost sensitivity to the irritant.⁶

While individual preferences might vary, ingredients that add spice to food are fundamental to humans. “[There] is a huge, wide range of experiences sensorily that we get from these herbs and spices,” said Breslin. “That [makes] food interesting.”