How you meet a dish you've never tried — do you chase the unfamiliar, or trust the foods you know? Both are old, human strategies.
The Food Neophobia Scale (Pliner & Hobden, 1992) is a validated ten-item measure of how willing someone is to try unfamiliar foods, used in food research worldwide and translated into many languages. People fall along a continuum from food neophilia (eager for the new) to food neophobia (preferring the familiar). Research finds the trait peaks in early childhood and usually softens with age and with repeated exposure to varied foods, and twin studies suggest a substantial inherited component. Caution toward unknown foods is generally read as an old protective instinct, not a character flaw. Where you place yourself here is a self-description, not a test score. (Food Neophobia Scale (Pliner & Hobden, 1992))