Social Interaction Modifies Learned Aversions, Sodium Appetite, and Both Palatability and Handling-Time Induced Dietary Preference in Rats (Rattus norvegicus )

In a series of four experiments, I examined the extent to which socially transmitted diet preference could counteract the effects of a learned aversion (Experiment 1), a palatability-based diet preference (Experiment 2), a polyethylene glycol 20,000-induced sodium appetite (Experiment 3), and a handling-time induced dietary preference (Experiment 4). I found that rats poisoned after eating a novel diet ate very substantial amounts of the …