Distilled Water and Tap Water as Factors in Taste Preference Experimentation

Abstract

Albino rats were permitted to drink either distilled water or tap water from two bottles. Animals with prior experience with distilled water in the home cage showed a consistent preference for distilled water which increased over test sessions; Ss having prior experience with tap water did not show statistically reliable preference behavior. Amount of water deprivation during the test session and length of test session were not significant variables. It was concluded that previous results showing a preference for tap water reflect the operation of several variables including prior experience, but the present experiment casts doubt on interpretations, suggesting that tap water is in some general way more palatable or that tap water and distilled water may be equated when interpreting experiments on taste preference.