Neophobia – News, Research and Analysis – The Conversation

Bitter vegetables can be an acquired taste. d3sign/Moment via Getty Images

February 23, 2026

Picky eating starts in the womb – a nutritional neuroscientist explains how to expand your child’s palate

Kathleen Keller, Penn State

While genes do influence some food preferences, positive experiences can help make new tastes easier to swallow.

By the 1980s, many New Yorkers were all in on sushi, a food that seemed weird just decades before. Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images

November 1, 2024

‘Safe route’ or ‘sushi route’ − 2 strategies to turn yuck to yum and convince people to eat unusual foods

Alexandra Plakias, Hamilton College

Past shifts in food habits suggest there are 2 paths to the adoption of new foods: One relies on familiarity and safety, the other on novelty and excitement.

Watching Julia Child in color or black and white could influence how appetizing the food looks to some audience members. AP Photo

September 10, 2024

How we discovered that people who are colorblind are less likely to be picky eaters

Isabel Gauthier, Vanderbilt University

Seeing the world with a restricted color palate seems to tone down an emotion-based resistance to new foods.

Sometimes vegetables end up everywhere except where they’d do most good. Evan Long/Flickr

March 3, 2014

Health Check: why kids don’t like vegies and how to change it

David Cox, CSIRO

So little Harry won’t eat his vegetables? Well, he’s not alone. Poor Harry is just protecting himself from the danger of alkaloid toxins – although he doesn’t actually know this. At the tender age of four…

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