Watching others visibly dislike vegetables might make onlookers dislike them too

Humans learn which behaviors pay off and which don't from watching others. Based on this, we may draw conclusions about how to act-or eat. In the case of the latter, 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 behavior.

In a new study, researchers in the UK 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 Dr Katie Edwards, a researcher at the Aston University School of Psychology and lead author of the study published in Frontiers in Psychology. “This highlights the power of observing food dislike on adults’ eating behavior.”

In the study led by Edwards, just over 200 young women watched 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 researchers examined only women’s reactions since gender differences may exist within the modelling of eating behavior, and modelling effects can be different among women and men.

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 Edwards.

Reference: Watching others visibly dislike vegetables might make onlookers dislike them, too; Frontiers in Psychology, DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1252369