evolutionary explanations

• state our preferences for particular foods exist because of challenges faced by our ancestors in the environment of evolutionary adaptation (EEA). This means that we have an innate preference for foods that benefited survival and innate aversion to those who caused harm
• our receptors have evolved to function to identify tastes of these different foods
• salty- in the hot African savannah salty food would have been needed to replace salts lost through sweating
• fatty- humans have evolved to have a diet rich in calories, energy resources were vital to stay alive so hunters sought fatty acid foods rich in calories
• Evolution is the process by which species adapt to their environment. Over many many years, random mutations in genes that are advantageous to the animal become more widespread among the species
• if you had genes that resulted in a preference for nutritious and commonly-found foods, for example, you would be less likely to starve and more likely to remain healthy and pass on those genes
• Neophobia- an innate dislike of foods we have not tried before, this makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint as unfamiliar foods could be potentially poisonous or unhealthy
• We overcome neophobia by learning
• Taste Aversion- when a person develops a dislike for certain food after becoming ill from it
• The role of learning- in addition to genetic/evolutionary factors, humans also learn food preferences from social influences and their culture
• neophobia is an innate dislike of foods we have not tried before, this makes sense from an evolutionary perspective as unfamiliar foods could potentially be poisonous or unhealthy, you are more likely to survive if you stick with familiar foods as you already know they are safe.
• We overcome neophobia via learning, in a study of young children, Birch et al (1987) found that preference for new foods increased over time with repeated exposure to those foods
• taste aversion- when a person develops a dislike for a certain food after becoming ill from it
• Taste aversion does not work in the same way as classical conditioning- taste aversion does not work in quite the same way because the time between eating the food and getting ill is often quite long.
• the more accurate description for taste aversion is biological preparedness (seligman 1971), which is the idea that humans are hard-wired to learn certain kinds of associations very easily. this would make sense from an evolutionary perspective - if certain foods are dangerous, it would be advantageous to learn this as quickly as possible because the next time you eat that food you might get ill again or die
• evaluation point- Other factors: Although evolution plays a role in shaping food preferences, other factors influence food preferences too. For example, social influences can override evolutionarily-programmed neophobia, such as a mother feeding her child new foods.
• other factors continued- Cultural influences are also important. For example, a person may have genetics that predispose them towards liking the taste of Marmite, but if they are not raised in a culture that has Marmite then they may never develop this taste.
• taste aversion is when a person develops a dislike for a certain food after becoming ill from it
• For example, you eat yoghurt, get food poisoning, and from then on even the thought of eating yoghurt again makes you feel sick.
• Although kind of like classical conditioning, taste aversion doesn't quite work in quite the same way because the time between eating the food and getting ill is often quite long.
• neophobia explanation- birch et al 1987- makes sense as unfamiliar foods could potentially be poisonous or unhealthy which can be overcome via learning or repeated exposure