RESEARCHER SPLITS PERSONALITIES, PROFESSIONS BY SNACK

STEPHANIE FAGNANI

ORLANDO -- The type of snack food people prefer correlates to their personality and what types of professions they are most successful in, according to Alan Hirsch, director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, Chicago.

Hirsch's research findings were presented to attendees of the SNAXPO 2001 conference, held here recently, during the session "Consumer Snacking 2001: Profiles and Trends."

Subjects were asked to choose their favorite snack foods from a list of eight Center Store categories.

His findings revealed that people who choose potato chips tend to be very successful, aggressive, driven individuals who become attorneys and tennis professionals, to name a few examples.

Additional conclusions included the following:

Pretzels: energetic, lively; often become journalists and flight attendants.

Cheese Curls: have a very fine sense of right and wrong; real estate agents and producers.

Tortilla Chips: perfectionists; become clergy members and travel agents.

Snack Crackers: generous and introspective; stockbrokers and race car drivers.

Popcorn: aggressive but humble; become things like neurosurgeons and truck drivers.

Nuts: very comfortable in emergency situations; firefighters and cardiologists.

Meat Snacks: gregarious, outgoing; become bartenders and dentists.