Role of learning in Food Preferences

• What influences our attitudes to food?

  Social learning theory - observing others eating behaviours
• what does the social learning theory suggest about food preferences?

  We may like or dislike foods because we model our parents behaviour or be infleunced by media

  all behaviour is learnt through imitation of role models- vicarious reinforcement (others being praised or punished)
• Evaluation of social influences on food preferences

  Research support for the role of :

  parents (Brown and Ogden)

  the media (Kolter)
• What did Brown and Ogden find out about the role of the parents in food preferences?

  Questionaires were completed by 112 parents/ child pairs

  Found correlation between parents and child in terms of

  • Snack intake
  • Body dissatisfation
  • Eating motivations
• What does Brown and Ogden's research suggest abut food preferences?

  food preferences arent learnt through the observation of parents
• What did Kolter find out about the role of the media on food preferences?

  Experiment 1= measure if children were more likely to pick a food associated with a known tv character compared to unknown

  Found - food preferences are influenced by identification of a role model within the media

  HOWEVER

  when character was assocuated with healthy option they picked unknown character
• What did Kolter found out about the role of the media on food preferences?

  Experiment 2= children were more likely to try more pieces of a healthy food if associated with a favoured character compared to unknown character

  REAL WORLD APPLICATION
• What Research suggests social learning through television is less persistent?

  Hare Bruun- group of Danish 8-10 year olds

  at beginning of studying- correlation between hours spent watching TV and unhealthy food preferences

  6 years later- weaker correlation for boys and disappeared altogether for girls
• What are the cultural influences on food preferences?

  Cultural norms- unwritten rules of scoiety which guides our behaviour (British eating roast dinner on sunday)

  Meat-eating - in france it is traditonal to eat all the animal (offal), american this is uncommon, india is meat-free culture

  Culture and learning - (classical conditioning) foods we enjoy as adults come with feelings of security. linked to memories of special events
• What is the cultural influences on food preferences explanation supported by?

  Study by Rozin

  • Conducted interview over the phone (6000 adults) asked 2 similar questions
  • "prefer ice cream parlour with 10 or 60 flavours" and "expect a large or small menu for upscale restaurant"
• What did Rozin found out?

  Found that USA and UK were more likely to prefer a variety of choices when eating compared to European countries like France and Italy who prefered smaller menu