Adding salt makes the pasta taste better. So I think this is a halo effect or manichean error—since salting the water is a good idea, it should do other good things too.
Or just a post-hoc rationalisation, by people who know you’re “supposed” to salt the pasta water, but don’t really know why. Because they’ve been taught to cook by example rather than from theory and first principles (as most of us are), maybe by someone who also didn’t know why they do it.
If they’ve also separately heard that salt raises the boiling point of water, but don’t really know the magnitude of that effect, then that presents itself as an available salient fact to slot into the empty space in “I salt my pasta water because...”
Adding salt makes the pasta taste better. So I think this is a halo effect or manichean error—since salting the water is a good idea, it should do other good things too.
Or just a post-hoc rationalisation, by people who know you’re “supposed” to salt the pasta water, but don’t really know why. Because they’ve been taught to cook by example rather than from theory and first principles (as most of us are), maybe by someone who also didn’t know why they do it.
If they’ve also separately heard that salt raises the boiling point of water, but don’t really know the magnitude of that effect, then that presents itself as an available salient fact to slot into the empty space in “I salt my pasta water because...”