Disliking veg can rub off on others
Scientists have long been interested in why some people like vegetables and why others don’t, when eating greens is good for you. A new study has found that other people’s likes and dislikes could play a part. Apparently, watching someone eating vegetables and visibly disliking them could put you off them a bit too.
A team from Aston University in Birmingham, England, set about investigating how the facial expressions that people make as they eat affect a person watching them. They asked more than 200 women to watch videos of other adults eating raw broccoli. The people in the videos would have different expressions while eating. They would smile, look neutral (neither happy nor sad) or look disgusted by what they were tasting.
The study found that watching people react with disgust to the broccoli reduced how much the women liked it. However, a positive facial expression didn’t make them like broccoli more.
Humans learn which behaviours will benefit them, including eating, by watching the reactions of others. This is known as social modelling, and it is a strong influence on people’s eating habits. Scientists think that people might avoid food that appears disgusting because it could help to protect them from eating something that tastes bad or could be dangerous. Although the research only focused on adults, experts think the results could also apply to children. This means that if children saw their parents or siblings not enjoying certain foods, including vegetables, they might not want to eat them either. A previous study at the same university found that children between the ages of four and six years old were more likely to eat broccoli if they’d seen video clips of adults enjoying it. Understanding more about how adults’ behaviour influences children’s enjoyment of food could help to find ways to encourage young people to eat more of the foods that are good for them.