Mindfulness and willingness to try insects as food: the role of disgust

Mindfulness, commonly associated with Buddhism, refers to the state of being aware, taking note of what is going on within oneself and outside of the world. In the current research, we examine the possible impact of mindfulness on willingness to try insect foods. We present the results of three studies—one correlational and two experimental—illustrating that mindfulness increases disgust and lowers willingness to try eating insects. On the one hand, this counters existing literature that mindfulness reduces emotional reactivity. On the other hand, it is in-line with mindfulness making one more aware and accepting of present and incoming information, which would conceivably include context-relevant emotions such as disgust in the case of eating insects that Western cultures see as disgusting. Our findings support the latter possibility. We situate our work within the literature on the various impacts of mindfulness on food choice. We also discuss implications for food sustainability practitioners.