Why do we have that ‘sour face’ when eating sour food?
In: Other
Its probably a hangover from very early primate/human evolution where facial expressions give a clue to other members of the group as to what is good to eat and what isn’t. We still use similar to babies and very young children, making expressions and noises of appreciation to communicate non-verbally that something will taste good.
It’s not entirely known but there are some hypothesises as to possibly why.
One is that we’re a social species and communicate a lot through our facial expressions, especially before language evolved. Certain tastes, such as sour, can denote that food has spoilt or it poisonous. The facial expression may be to warn others of our tribe.
Another is that when you make that face you put pressure on your salivary glands which squeezes out extra saliva which then dilutes what’s in your mouth and makes it more bearable.
Could also be both. Could be something else we haven’t thought of.
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