Explanation for food preference: The role of learning
Overview: Assessing ways in which we learn to prefer certain foods, and how family, friends and
media may influence this, as well as the cultural norms we are exposed to.
Learning foods through classical and operant conditioning
Classical: known as flavour-flavour learning, whereby we come to develop a preference for new
foods because of its association with flavours we already like. Due to innate preference for
sweetness, we learn to like new foods by sweetening them e.g., porridge.
Operant: Preferences are reinforced based on family and siblings, positively reinforced when trying
new foods through encouragement/praise or punishing a child for not eating a food like switching
off cartoon.
Social influences in learning food preferences
Social learning theory explains in terms of modelling and vicarious reinforcement. Acquire
preference through the role models they observe eating certain foods, especially if the role model
comes to be rewarded for eating it and can observe the food is safe because the role model was not
harmed for eating it.
Family: The ‘gatekeepers’ of a child’s early eating. They decide what foods to introduce in childhood
Peers: Discuss food preference and negative experiences of food with others. Birch lunchroom
study saw a preschool child sat next to other children who share a vegetable preference
different to theirs, the child’s veg preference comes to be the same as the peers they observed.
Media: As become older and independent, children make own food choices and are influenced by
advertisement promoting unhealthy foods e.g., the recent complaints of McDonalds ads being
within 100m of primary schools.
Cultural influences in learning food preferences
The norms and values of a culture greatly influences what food (and how much of it) is acceptable to
eat, this may be the most significant predictor of food preference.
Cultural norms: such as ideal meals and eating patterns, widely accepted to have a roast dinner on
Sundays in the UK.
Meat eating: Developed cultures are beginning to question the necessity of eating meat whether for
moral or health reasoning and reducing intake. Cultural tradition ‘Offal’ in France, is to eat every part
of a butchered animal e.g., heart, liver, tail.
Cultural experiences: We associate food eaten as an adult with feelings of security and happy
experiences, perhaps linked to an enjoyable memory linked with family. Or vicarious reinforcement
e.g., Lollypops are comforting as an adult because they were used as a reward as a child.
Overview: Assessing ways in which we learn to prefer certain foods, and how family, friends and
media may influence this, as well as the cultural norms we are exposed to.
Learning foods through classical and operant conditioning
Classical: known as flavour-flavour learning, whereby we come to develop a preference for new
foods because of its association with flavours we already like. Due to innate preference for
sweetness, we learn to like new foods by sweetening them e.g., porridge.
Operant: Preferences are reinforced based on family and siblings, positively reinforced when trying
new foods through encouragement/praise or punishing a child for not eating a food like switching
off cartoon.
Social influences in learning food preferences
Social learning theory explains in terms of modelling and vicarious reinforcement. Acquire
preference through the role models they observe eating certain foods, especially if the role model
comes to be rewarded for eating it and can observe the food is safe because the role model was not
harmed for eating it.
Family: The ‘gatekeepers’ of a child’s early eating. They decide what foods to introduce in childhood
Peers: Discuss food preference and negative experiences of food with others. Birch lunchroom
study saw a preschool child sat next to other children who share a vegetable preference
different to theirs, the child’s veg preference comes to be the same as the peers they observed.
Media: As become older and independent, children make own food choices and are influenced by
advertisement promoting unhealthy foods e.g., the recent complaints of McDonalds ads being
within 100m of primary schools.
Cultural influences in learning food preferences
The norms and values of a culture greatly influences what food (and how much of it) is acceptable to
eat, this may be the most significant predictor of food preference.
Cultural norms: such as ideal meals and eating patterns, widely accepted to have a roast dinner on
Sundays in the UK.
Meat eating: Developed cultures are beginning to question the necessity of eating meat whether for
moral or health reasoning and reducing intake. Cultural tradition ‘Offal’ in France, is to eat every part
of a butchered animal e.g., heart, liver, tail.
Cultural experiences: We associate food eaten as an adult with feelings of security and happy
experiences, perhaps linked to an enjoyable memory linked with family. Or vicarious reinforcement
e.g., Lollypops are comforting as an adult because they were used as a reward as a child.
