Parental warning: This common childhood habit is contagious
Parents, if you don’t like vegetables, get ready to brush up your acting skills. Children could learn to hate their greens if they see others dislike them too, according to a new study.
Aston University psychologists observed facial expressions of people eating raw broccoli, and found they can influence our own liking – or disliking – of the vegetable.
And they believe the same impressions could influence children too.
The research team explained that humans learn which behaviours pay off and which don’t from watching others. Based on those observations, we may draw conclusions about how to act – or eat.
In the case of food, people may use each other as guides to determine what and how much to eat. This is called ‘social modelling’ – and is one of the most powerful social influences on eating behaviour.
The Aston team investigated whether observing others’ facial expressions while eating raw broccoli influenced young women’s liking and desire to eat raw broccoli.
‘We show that watching others eating a raw vegetable with a negative facial expression reduces adult women’s liking of that vegetable, but not their desire to eat it,’ said lead author Dr Katie Edwards, a researcher at the Aston University School of Psychology.
‘This highlights the power of observing food dislike on adults’ eating behaviour.’
The study involved more than 200 young women watching a video containing clips of different unfamiliar adults consuming raw broccoli.
While eating, the models displayed positive (smiling), neutral, or negative (disgust-like) facial expressions.
The research team examined only women’s reactions since gender differences may exist within the modelling of eating behaviour, and modelling effects can be different among women and men.
Previous research had shown that behaviours are more likely to be imitated if positive consequences are observed, while the reverse is true if negative outcomes are witnessed.
But that correlation was observed only partially in the new study.
Dr Edwards said that exposure to models eating broccoli while conveying negative facial expressions resulted in a greater reduction in liking ratings, whereas the reverse did not hold.
‘Watching others eating a raw vegetable with a positive facial expression did not increase adults’ vegetable liking or eating desire,’ she added.
Dr Edwards says one possible explanation may be that avoiding any food – irrespective of whether it is commonly liked or disliked – that appears disgusting can protect us from eating something that tastes bad or is harmful.
Another reason may be that smiling while eating is perceived as an untypical display of liking a certain food.
‘This might imply that watching someone eating a raw vegetable with positive facial expressions does not seem an effective strategy for increasing adults’ vegetable consumption,’ said Dr Edwards.
She says there is still much that needs to be understood about the interplay of obvious enjoyment and the liking of food.
For example, the research team focused on adults, and while this has not been tested for on this occasion, they said that given the power of negative facial expressions, and because children tend to be less willing to try vegetables by default, these findings could generalise to kids.
‘For example, if a child sees their parent showing disgust whilst eating vegetables, this could have negative consequences on children’s vegetable acceptance,’ said Dr Edwards.
The study is published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
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