10 - Acquired tastes: on the learning of human food preferences

Abstract

People are born with few specific food preferences. Most preferences are acquired with experience. One type of such learning concerns Pavlovian conditioning in which a flavor becomes better liked through its association with an already liked taste, nutritive outcome, or another positive postingestive effect. Pavlovian conditioning also underlies the experience of food craving, an intense desire for a certain food item. Food craving is elicited by cues predicting the intake of a particularly palatable food. Pavlovian food cues thus motivate instrumental food seeking and intake. Research demonstrates that increased liking and preference for healthier foods can be conditioned by pairing a healthy flavor with a positive outcome (Pavlovian conditioning) and by pairing the consumption of healthy foods with a rewarding outcome (instrumental conditioning). Healthier food preferences can also be acquired vicariously by learning from observing trusted others. Both direct and indirect experiences with certain foods thus importantly contribute to the acquisition of food preferences.