Learning to like: Roles of repeated exposure and other types of learning

Humans readily accept sweet tastes and reject those that are sour or bitter. While these predispositions were adaptive in earlier periods of human history, motivating humans to seek out calories and avoid potential poisons, they can set the stage for unhealthy eating habits in the modern obesogenic environment. Correspondingly, many children are not meeting dietary recommendations. Yet children’s food preferences are malleable. In this chapter, we explore repeated exposure as a simple and promising technique for promoting healthy food preferences during infancy and childhood, as well as additional learning paradigms that have been studied alongside it. Based on the evidence supporting the roles of repeated exposure and other types of learning in the establishment of healthy food preferences, we conclude with recommendations of ways that caregivers and broader environments can support the development of healthier eating among children.