As a further elaboration: growing up, I absolutely hated pasta salad. I could not and would not eat it. But one day, when I was about 22-23, I was working somewhere that includes meals, since shifts were literally all day for a week (save eight hours for sleeping). The cook made a pasta salad that I could only describe as “orgasmic.” I ate that same pasta salad for every meal for the next two days until they finally tossed the leftovers. Ever since then, I have been “converted” to enjoy pasta salad. That one dish completely changed how my body reacts to a food that I already tried several times.
Any “salad” that wasn’t some type of leafy green and dressing. Pasta, macaroni, tuna, potato, and I think coleslaw caught some strays causes of the cream adjacent association.
I found out it was raw green peppers and celery I don’t like. But taste change. After I got into cooking and learned what mirapoux was, it was over. I still prefer an acid based slaw as opposed to cream, and I still don’t really fuck with raw green peppers (I would never complain about them if I got them, I don’t even think I would ask for them to be removed, I just would probably cook them if I was at home first).