Social influences have been shown to be very important to overcome food neophobia in young children. However, there is no experimental evidence about whether social influences on food acceptance are specific, that is if models eating the same food as the child are more effective in promoting food acceptance than models eating a different food. We assessed children's behavior towards novel foods when an adult model (a) was not eating (Presence condition), (b) was eating a food of a Different color (Different color condition), and (c) was eating a food of the Same color (Same color condition). We tested 27 children (ages 2- to 5-years-old) recruited from The Pennsylvania State University day-care facilities. Results show that children accepted and ate their novel food more in the Same color condition than in the Different color and in the Presence conditions. Therefore, in young children food acceptance is promoted by specific social influences. These data indicate that children are more likely to eat new food if others are eating the same type of food than when others are merely present or eating another kind of food.
Food neophobia, defined as the hesitancy to eat novel foods (Barnett, 1963), can be considered an efficient behavioral strategy to cope with the ‘omnivore's dilemma’ (Rozin, 1977): omnivores should explore, sample, and eventually include novel foods in the diet, but they should also be very cautious toward them, in order to avoid the risk of ingesting poisonous substances (see also Freeland and Janzen, 1974, Glander, 1982 and Milton, 1993). Food neophobia is widespread among omnivorous species, including humans (e.g. warblers, Dendroica castanea and D. pensylvanica: Greenberg, 1990; rats, Rattus norvegicus, Barnett, 1958 and Galef, 1970; ruminants: Provenza, 1995; capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella, Visalberghi and Fragaszy, 1995 and Visalberghi et al., 2003; rhesus macaques, Macaca mulatta: Johnson, 2000, Johnson, 1997 and Weiskrantz and Cowey, 1963; chimpanzees, Visalberghi et al., 2002; humans, Rozin, 1976).
In children, although the available studies on food neophobia have utilized rather different approaches, there is evidence that neophobia is minimal in infancy, rises rapidly at around the age of two, and gradually decreases thereafter. Children aged 2–5 years old are more neophobic than infants (4–7 months old). It has been argued that neophobia is not a functional response during infancy, when food is provided by parents, whereas it becomes more important by early childhood, when children have begun to explore the environment and eat by themselves (Birch et al., 1998 and Cashdan, 1994; see also Cooke, Wardle, & Gibson, 2003). Moreover, in 2–6-year-old children higher levels of neophobia are associated with lower consumption of vegetables, fruit, and meat, which are the most potentially dangerous foods given the possible presence of plant toxins and food poisoning bacteria (Cooke et al., 2003, see also Cashdan, 1998). These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that children's food preferences are shaped by evolutionary adaptations that are no longer appropriate in the current Western food environment (Cooke et al., 2003 and Rozin, 1990).
However, although children's neophobic response towards novel foods is a common cause of parental concern and frustration, neophobia is not a permanent dislike for a particular novel food (Birch, 1983). In fact, neophobia attenuates over time possibly because dietary variety is important for survival in omnivorous species (Raynor & Epstein, 2001). The two more important factors promoting the acceptance of a novel food are the social context in which the food is encountered and the repeated experiences with that food and the consequences of its ingestion.
