social influences- Firstly, what a child’s mother eats during development affects the child’s food preferences. In the womb, foods (and flavours) the mother eats are fed to the baby via the amniotic fluid. After birth, foods and flavours are transmitted from the mother to the baby via breast milk. This contributes towards a preference for the same foods as the mother.
Secondly, social learning affects food preferences. Children observe what parents and other role models eat, which they then imitate. This helps reduce neophobia, encouraging the child to eat a wider range of foods.
Thirdly, operant conditioning also contributes to food preferences. If you enjoy eating a certain food, then that enjoyment serves as positive reinforcement, which increases the chances of you eating it again. However, research suggests that operant conditioning doesn’t really work to create food preferences. For example, if parents try to teach their children to like certain foods (e.g. vegetables) through rewards (e.g. praise for eating vegetables), it may actually decrease preference for those foods.
