Evolutionary Explanations

Question 1

What is EEA?

Answer 1

Environment of Evolutionary Adaptability - how life was that motivated us to adapt and evolve

Question 2

Food preferences - Fat

Answer 2

High Calorie Foods (fat) often not available so we learned to prefer food with high calories giving an advantage (survival)
Fat= twice as many calories = taste preference because it was most efficient to energy consumption

Question 3

Food Preference - Salt

Answer 3

Salt is essential for many cell functions in animal
Preferences for salt occurs in humans at around 4 months

Question 4

Harris - Salt

Answer 4

Infants between 16-25 weeks who had been breastfed preferred salted cereal compared to unsalted cereal
Breast milk is low in salt so that hadn’t learnt a salt preference and that it is innate

Question 5

Food Preference - Sugar

Answer 5

Fructose is a fast-acting sugar providing energy quickly, also present in fruit which would’ve been favoured
It’s linked to sweet taste as its reliable signal for high energy food
Food preference doesn’t encourage us for fruit but instead sweets etc. because we no longer have to hunt and forage

Question 6

Steiner - Sugar

Answer 6

Placed sugar on tongues of new-born babies and saw positive facial expressions
New-borns can distinguish types of sugars
Fructose is sweet and babies want as much as possible

Question 7

Rozin - Sugar

Answer 7

Preference for sweetness is innate - the number of sweet receptors on the human tongue are far more than for other flavours such as bitter etc.

Question 8

Torres - Fat

Answer 8

Concluded humans have an increased tendency to prefer high - fat foods during periods of stress - the fight or flight response is activated - this evolved mechanism requires greater demands for energy which high calorie food would provide

Question 9

Bell - Sugar

Answer 9

Some cultures develop no experience of sweet foods/drinks because of their environment.
Inupiat People had no contact with sugar, but sweet foods were readily accepted despite their nature, suggesting an underlying human preference for sweet foods

Question 10

Neophobia

Answer 10

Humans have an innate unwillingness to eat unfamiliar food (most common between 2-6)
Untried food could be dangerous so neophobia is adaptive so we don’t eat food that is fatal
Naturally reduces when we learn what foods will/won’t hurt us - when diminished people begin to consume a more varied diet

Question 11

Birch

Answer 11

Said it appears when a child begins to explore their environments and may encounter foods independently of their parents’ guidance

Question 12

Taste Aversion

Answer 12

The ability to quickly avoid food that makes us ill, especially new foods

Question 13

Seligman’s theory of Biological Preparedness

Answer 13

Acquire certain taste aversions or fears quicker that others
These fears to certain things that posed threat to our ancestors
Genetically hardwired to learn taste aversion
This makes us less likely to eat food thats gone off

Question 14

Garcia and Koelling

Answer 14

Classically conditioned rats to acquire taste aversion to sweetened water after pairing it with poison
Taste aversion is likely to be the outcome of eating poisoned food that it is of encountering a light/sound/shock
An adaptive response that aids survival

Question 15

Steiner - Bitter

Answer 15

Found evidence of negative facial expressions in response to bitter taste which occurred before the learning of taste preference had taken place suggesting there is an innate mechanism

Question 16

Martins and Fessier

Answer 16

Neophobia is particularly strong in response to animal products rather than non-animal products as we have evolved to understand a greater threat of illness

Question 17

Knaapila

Answer 17

Heritability estimate of 67% of variation in food neophobia is genetically determined - if the case then this evidence proves that neophobia evolved among human beings because it protected them from potentially harmful foods