Demonstrator influence on observer diet preference: Analyses of critical social interactions and olfactory signals

Previous studies have shown that interaction of an observer rat with a previously fed conspecific demonstrator enhances the observer’s subsequent preference for the diet its demonstrator ate. The present series of experiments were undertaken to explore both the conditions sufficient to permit demonstrator influence on observer diet preference and the behavioral processes underlying such influence. We found (1) that an observer rat can be influenced in its subsequent diet selection by interaction for as little as 2 min with a demonstrator, (2) that during such brief interactions mouth-to-mouth contact between demonstrator and observer is necessary for demonstrator influence on observer diet preference, (3) that both cues emerging from the digestive tract of a rat fed by intragastric intubation and particles of food clinging to the fur of a demonstrator are sufficient to permit observers to identify their respective demonstrators’ diets, (4) that exposure to a diet is effective in enhancing an observer’s subsequent preference for that diet only if the diet is experienced in the presence of another rat, and (5) that diets experienced on the anterior of a live rat are more effective in altering observers’ subsequent diet preferences than the same diets experienced either on the anterior of a dead rat or the posterior of a live one.