Testimony about Food Taste and Health: The Impact of Testimony on Children’s Choices about Visually Unfamiliar Foods

Abstract

ABSTRACT A food’s visual features and testimony from others are important clues for children when making food choices. Children must integrate these two forms of information to make choices about food. The present study investigated children’s food choices when these two clues are presented together. After confirming that children between the ages of 4–6 years (N= 32) did not prefer visually unfamiliar foods (Experiment 1), Experiment 2 investigated whether positive testimony about the taste or healthiness would influence children’s choices about visually unfamiliar foods. More specifically, children heard testimony from adults and peers that visually unfamiliar foods were either tasty (taste testimony condition, n= 24) or good for you (health testimony condition, n= 24). Then, they were asked whether they would choose to eat the visually unfamiliar foods which were recommended by an adult or a peer. In the no testimony condition, children (n= 24) were asked to choose the foods without hearing testimony about visually unfamiliar foods. Testimony about a food’s taste encouraged children to choose visually unfamiliar foods; peers’ testimony regarding a food’s taste had a stronger influence on children’s selection of visually unfamiliar foods than testimony from adults. However, health testimony did not facilitate choosing visually unfamiliar foods, regardless of whether from an adult or a peer. Why different types and sources of testimony had various degrees of influence on children’s selection of visually unfamiliar foods was discussed.