When pursuing hedonic experiences leads to less hedonic outcomes: Hedonic sampling drives the persistence of false beliefs in reward-rich food environments.

Existing research explains the widespread belief that unhealthy food is tastier than healthy food by how food is portrayed in the media and social networks and by the notion that food cannot serve two purposes (health and pleasure) at the same time. However, these explanations cannot explain why people do not change this belief despite the increasingly large variety of healthy and tasty food options. We argue that it is the abundance of tasty foods in the environment, combined with people's motivation to eat palatable foods, that prevents individuals from changing their beliefs. In three online studies and one taste experiment (total N = 976), we show that individuals' food choices in reward-rich environments with many tasty foods, but not in reward-poor environments with few tasty foods, led to a consolidation of initial beliefs, even when there was no relationship between food healthiness and taste or a relationship that contradicted their beliefs in the experimental food environment. Our findings suggest that a basic hedonic sampling mechanism contributes to the persistence of food beliefs, such as the belief that unhealthy food tastes better, and should be considered when trying to change unhealthy diets. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).