Unplanned Psychological Experiment

One of the little mommy duties that I love is fixing my kids' plates. I know them each so well, I am able to expertly dish out what each of them likes from any given choices.

Take steak, rice, green beans, and rolls for instance.

Reese gets lots of steak and a spoonful of green beans.

Drue gets a few bites of steak, lots of rice, spoonful of beans, and a roll buttered in front of her so the butter doesn't have time to melt first.

Tate gets a few bites of steak, rice, beans, and a buttered roll.

Milk for all--no straws, thus eliminating milk bubbles all over the table and the floor. Tate must drink a small glass of milk before getting his beverage of preference, which, of all things, is water.

Tonight I made cheese tortellini in alfredo sauce with rolls. (Yes, I realize another carb filled dinner...).

I wasn't going to make any alternate dishes for the kids so I placed a few noodles on each plate and buttered the rolls accordingly.

Reese could have won an emmy for her dramatic silent display to let me know she was not happy about the meal. It was complete with hunched shoulders, furrowed eyebrows, and disgusted facial expressions that would make one think she was being made to eat a beetle.

She only had 5 tortellinis on her plate. F-I-V-E.

And here's where the psychological part came in to play. Tate and Drue both began to gulp down their noodles. Reese was even able to choke a few down. But NONE of them would touch the green ones. And one by one, as I kept encouraging them to finish their last few noodles, objected, "But I don't like the green ones....".

The dish had mixed yellow and green tortellini. I couldn't help but laugh because there is absolutely no difference in the taste whatsoever between the two. Not even slightly.

All they saw was green and immediately made their decision that they didn't like them. I had just witnessed the placebo effect firsthand!