Effects of Peer Models' Food Choices and Eating Behaviors on Preschoolers'Food Preferences

Preschooler food preferences can be strongly influenced by outside forces, namely, peer pressure, hero worship, role models, etc., but whether the changed preferences persist or not is slightly harder to assess. Experimental taste tests of 9 vegetables were tried on 39 children; they were asked to taste each one, decide whether it tasted good, bad, or OK, and then were helped to rank them by preference. The next step was to determine the effects of social influence by peers--this was done in a lunch-room situation where one child with a strong preference was placed with 3 peers of opposite tastes for 4 days. Data was obtained on 17 different subjects in 17 situations. The first step was then repeated. The target children showed a distinct increase in preference for previously spurned food, as well as a decrease in desire for the favorite vegetable, though not of an equal amount. The social influence thus demonstrated indicates that children will learn to accept a broader range of foods when exposed to preferences other than their own