Conditioned taste aversion

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Conditioned taste aversion occurs when an animal acquires an aversion to the taste of a food that was paired with aversive stimuli. The effect explains that the aversion develops more strongly for stimuli that cause nausea than other stimuli. This is considered an adaptive trait or survival mechanism that enables the organism to avoid poisonous substances (e.g., poisonous berries) before they cause harm. The aversion reduces consuming the same substance (or something that tastes similar) in the future, thus avoiding poisoning.

Studies on conditioned taste aversion that involved irradiating rats were conducted in the 1950s by John Garcia,^[1] leading to it sometimes being called the Garcia effect.

Conditioned taste aversion can occur when sickness is merely coincidental to, and not caused by, the substance consumed. For example, a person who becomes very sick after consuming tequila-and-orange-juice cocktails may then become averse to the taste of orange juice, even though the sickness was caused by the over-consumption of alcohol. Under these circumstances, conditioned taste aversion is sometimes known as the sauce-bearnaise syndrome, a term coined by Seligman and Hager.^[2]