Social Influences on Rats' (Rattus norvegicus) Preferences for Flavored Foods, Scented Nest Materials, and Odors Associated With Harborage Sites: Are Flavored Foods Special?

We undertook in several experiments to determine whether the enhanced preference an observer rat (Rattus norvegicus) exhibits for a food after it interacts with a demonstrator rat fed that food reflects a general enhancement of the observer's preference for objects smelling like the food its demonstrator ate or results from a change in olfactory preference specific to foods. After an observer rat interacted with a demonstrator, it exhibited an …