Seeking answers, trying insects: Induced curiosity as a catalyst for novel food consumption

Despite the environmental and nutritional promise of insect-based foods (IBFs), their adoption in Western societies remains limited by psychological barriers including disgust and food neophobia (FN). While recent research has identified stimulus-bound curiosity as a predictor of willingness to try IBFs, no study has tested whether curiosity induced independently of food can causally increase actual consumption. Building on theory suggesting induced curiosity primes a general reward-seeking goal, this study examined whether pre-exposure curiosity triggers can increase consumption of a novel IBF. In a 2 (Curiosity: Induced vs. Satiated) × 2 (Food: Cricket Flour vs. Corn Flour Nachos) between-subjects experiment (N = 210), participants attempted practically unsolvable riddles before sampling snacks. Those whose curiosity was left unsatisfied (riddle solution withheld) reported higher state curiosity (d = 0.57) and consumed more of the cricket-based snack via state curiosity (conditional indirect effect = 2.23g, ∼5% of serving, 95% CI [0.62, 4.32]), a pattern consistent with, though not formally confirmed to differ from, the non-significant effect observed for familiar corn-based snacks. Furthermore, FN attenuated the curiosity-induction effect in the context of the novel food. Exploratory analyses revealed that men showed a stronger mediated effect than women, who exhibited a countervailing negative direct effect on novel food consumption. These findings provide evidence that curiosity can function as a causal, transferable psychological lever to promote novel food trial, while identifying FN and sex as boundary conditions. Practical implications for using pre-exposure curiosity triggers in novel food marketing are discussed.