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This is a completely psychotic thought, but I'm really curious to see what kind of circumstances would break their pickiness. For example, how many days of starvation before they change their minds. Also, would that happen sooner if no one was observing them?
Absolutely unethical and it could never happen as an experiment, but I wish I could see the results somehow.
Someone very close to me suffers from ARFID. Imagine if you will that you were in the situations above. How long would it be before you tried eating dog poop? If people were telling you dog poop was safe and healthy and the only way to survive yet for your entire life you've known otherwise.
This isn't the greatest example, but that roughly gives you an idea of what someone with ARFID might be struggling with in those moments and why it is different than just picky eating.
In the more extreme cases, I'd assume never, as it is with Bulima and Anorexia, though I can't find anything online that specifically mentions ARFID.
I know in my case I’ll go 4-5 days without eating something if I can’t find anything that won’t be awful.
A friend of a friend got into coma once because of that, their parents apparently didn't thought that it's psychotic to starve their children to death as an experiment and a teaching moment
Remember that guy who took a bunch of babies and had them raised without any affection and minimal contact to see what the original human language was? Maybe we can get him to do it
I can't believe I ducked that and it gave me MULTIPLE CASES spanning thousands of years.
e: Harry Harlow burn in a thousand hells.
I have ARFID so I can give some insight.
Generally, how hungry I am has little bearing on what I can or cannot force myself to eat. In my experience, it feels that it's more of an anxiety response to certain foods than it is a "ew that tastes bad" thing.
As a result, not only does being hungry not change anything, but if I've skipped enough meals, I'll also feel weak and have less ability to mentally self-regulate, and so it gets worse making it even harder to eat (or more accurately, shrinking my circle of foods I know I'll be able to eat)
On the flip side, two things that do help me venture out of my safe foods a bit are
- recent exercise
- being drunk
Exercise helps like everything in the brain, and being drunk lowers my inhibitions. Either way, the anxiety is more manageable, the nausea doesn't come in as strongly, and it's a lot more likely I can be adventurous.
Dread by Clive Barker (Books of Blood Vol 2) explores this, if you want a fictional answer.