Demonstration of a socially transmitted taste aversion in the rat

Abstract

Observer rats were allowed to interact for 15 min with 2 conspecific demonstrators, 1 that had been fed a cocoa-flavored diet and 1 that had been fed a cinnamon-flavored diet. One of the demonstrators had been made ill immediately following ingestion of its diet. The observer rats were then presented with the cocoa-flavored and cinnamon-flavored diets for 22 h. The observer rats consumed significantly less of the ill demonstrator's diet than of the healthy demonstrator's diet. This finding suggests that, under some conditions, rats can acquire a socially transmitted taste aversion. This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grants BNS-8915342 and IBN-9407326 to R.M.C. A report of these data was submitted by L.-A.K. to satisfy the research requirement of the Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. The authors thank Robert Tetreault for assistance in data collection. The authors also thank Nestor Matthews and Sharon Malcolm for their help with a pilot study on which the present experiment is based.