Wannabe food photographers of the world, rejoice! All of your efforts of searching for the perfect filter for your Instagram’s “#foodporn” pictures may have more of a purpose than just making your friends jealous of that burger or late-night dessert you’re eating.
A study by Kathleen D. Vohs, Yajin Wang, Francesca Gino, Michael I. Norton at the University of Minnesota suggests that performing any sort ritual before eating can make your food taste that much better. In the study, a series of four experiments were conducted, all of which support the idea that by simply being more conscious of your food, whether through eating that Hershey’s chocolate bar by halves, doing a toast, and yes, even taking pictures of your food, helps to make your dining experience more delectable.
Take a stroll around the internet, and you’ll find that people have found joy in making fun of food porn aficionados — there’s even Tumblrs devoted to posting pictures of people taking pictures of food, even one specifically for Asians. But, it seems to us that those people are having the last (and more delicious) laugh.
