Observational Behavior

I know we have all heard the old saying, you are what you eat. Well, in this article is refers to who you are watching eat. It discusses the relationship of our peers and how they can affect us in more ways then we know. We will do as we see, observational learning chapter 5, so if we see our friends eating ice cream rather than a salad for lunch, we are more apt to do the same. In the long run we and our friends are obese.

I do believe this is somewhat true. I know that we are creatures of habit and we do mimic what we see others do. But I also realize that everyone can make up their own mind whether or not to eat healthy or not.
Another side to this observational learning is: learning good habits from peers instead of bad habits. If we are out with a friend who does not drink alcohol then we are more likely not to want to drink.
The Parade, Sept. 2009