Popeyes' Ghost Pepper Wings Have Returned For A Limited Time

According to Big Think, humans are unique in our love of all things spicy. While other animals will forgo eating foods that cause unpleasant bodily responses, humans happily seek out such experiences. Capsaicin, which gives peppers their intense bite, may have evolved as a method of stopping mammals from eating the vegetable, as birds are immune to pepper seeds' spicy effects. (Birds are integral in spreading seeds so they can propagate in numerous areas, so it makes sense that peppers would have evolved this defensive tactic against ravenous mammalian taste buds.)

But proving that humankind is as inscrutable as the universe itself, the tactic seems to have backfired. Humans love torturing themselves with the hottest of hot foods, which researchers believe may be a method of controlled thrill-seeking; spicy foods elicit a similar "defense response" as jump scares and extreme sports (per Big Think). This defense response is particularly strong when facing down a ghost pepper, which PepperScale reports to be 1,041,427 Scoville heat units (SHU). According to MasterClass, the Scoville scale was developed in 1912 by Wilbur Scoville and calculates the specific level of capsaicin in a pepper. Based on the scale, the ghost pepper ranks six, with pure capsaicin at the top (equivalent to 16,000,000 SHU). 

Despite the high SHU, though, people love ghost peppers. And similarly beloved nationwide chicken chain Popeyes is capitalizing on people's taste for ghost pepper-flavored pain with the limited release of a special menu item.