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A cohort study investigating the relationship between perceived social norms on habitual food consumption
39th BFDG 2015 / Appetite 101 (2016) 214e238
European countries such as China, in western societies, the consumption of insects is not rooted in traditional nutrition. Data for the present study was collected from adults in Germany (n ¼ 502) and China (n ¼ 443). A crossnational comparison was conducted based on consumers' willingness to eat different insect-based, processed (e.g., cookies based on cricket flour) and unprocessed (i.e., crickets) food. The influence of food neophobia and attitudes on willingness to eat insects was examined. The Chinese rated all insect-based food more favourably with regard to taste, nutritional value, familiarity and social acceptance. Also, they reported greater willingness to eat the tested food products, but no differences were observed between their ratings of processed and unprocessed food. The Germans reported higher willingness to eat the processed insect-based foods compared to the unprocessed foods. Further results were that high scores for food neophobia, negative taste expectations, low scores for social acceptance and experience with eating insects in the past were significant predictors of the willingness to eat insects in both countries. Consequently, the introduction of insects as a food source in western societies seems more likely to succeed if insects are incorporated into familiar food items, which will reduce neophobic reactions and negative attitudes towards insect-based foods. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.055
A COHORT STUDY INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED SOCIAL NORMS ON HABITUAL FOOD CONSUMPTION J. Liu, J.M. Thomas, S. Higgs. School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK The effect of social norms on food consumption and food choice in the laboratory has been widely researched. However, many studies have focused on how social norm interventions change dietary choice, rather than investigating relationships between perceived social norms and eating behaviour. The current study examined the relationship between perceived social norms and self-reported habitual food consumption (fruit and vegetable intake, “junk” food and sweet beverage consumption), and if this relationship is moderated by the extent to which students identify with the norm referent group. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 650 undergraduate students (83% women, average age ¼ 19 years) using an online questionnaire. The results showed that when for controlling age, gender and ethnicity, perceived social norms about intake significantly predicted self-reported fruit and junk food intake among students who scored highly on identification with the norm referent group. There was a similar pattern of result for self-reported vegetable intake but no significant effect for sweet drink intake. These findings suggest that perceived social norms may be used to promote healthy food consumption. The reason why perceived social norms did not predict sweet drink intake is unclear and deserves further investigation. Follow-up assessment of this cohort may shed light on this issue.
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considered significant with p < 0.05. In general, we observed positive IAT scores representing more positive associations to low-caloric food in comparison to high-caloric food (Food-IAT) and to flowers compared to insects (Control-IAT). Regression analyses including the aforementioned variables showed that the BMI and age contributed significantly to the model of the Food-IAT. Consequently, when including BMI groups (lean, overweight, obese) and gender in an ANOVA, we observed a weaker positive association to low-caloric food in obese. No gender differences were observed. Correlation analyses showed marginal reliability for the Control(R ¼ 0.435) and for the Food-IAT (R ¼ 0.385). In conclusion, the food-related IAT showed no relation to the obtained eating behavior traits and hunger. However, unlike the Control-IAT, the Food-IAT depicts BMI-related differences. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.057
EXPLICITLY HEALTHY, IMPLICITLY PLEASANT: IMPLICIT ASSOCIATIONS OF HEALTHY PRODUCTS WITH POSITIVE EMOTIONS I. Tijssen, I. Impric, L. Zandstra, G. Jager. Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands Sensory attributes (e.g. taste) are one of the main drivers of food-evoked emotions. People tend to have implicit associations that ‘foods that taste good are also unhealthy’. Nowadays, opposite intuitions are also becoming apparent. So if healthy foods are intuitively becoming tastier, and sensory attributes drive food-evoked emotions, is it safe to assume that today ‘healthy foods are implicitly associated with positive emotions’? Since attitudes to food are also influenced by eating behaviour (emotional, external, restraint) the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) was used to link eating behaviour to implicit associations. An Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to assess implicit attitudes of 36 healthy volunteers (normal BMI) towards two pairs of target-attitude concepts; food pictures (healthy vs. unhealthy) and emotional terms (positive vs. negative). Response time was used as an indicator of the strength of the association. Results revealed healthy foods were paired with positive emotions faster (m ¼ 710.12 ms) than unhealthy foods with positive emotions (m ¼ 1188.57 ms) and vice versa. Based on Greenwald's (2003) scoring algorithm the IAT effect (interpreted similar to Cohen's d) was highly significant (MD-score¼1.00, SD ¼ 0.50, t(35) ¼ 12.028, p < 0.001). Pearson’s correlations indicate a significant correlation between emotional eating score and IAT effect (r ¼ 0.325; p ¼ 0.027). These findings indicate that healthy foods are implicitly associated with positive emotions and the strength of the association is modulated by (emotional) eating behaviour. For the latter we have no clear explanation, except that emotional eaters aim to improve mood via eating. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.058
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.056
EXPOSURE TO LARGER FOOD PORTIONS ALTERS VISUAL JUDGMENTS OF PORTION SIZE NORMALITY
A FOOD-RELATED IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION TEST e IMPLICATIONS FOR OBESITY
E. Robinson, M. Oldham. University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Bedford Street South, L69 7ZA, UK
S. Frank, K. Giel, J. Heinze, H. Preissl. fMEG Center, University of Tübingen, Otfried-Müller-Str. 47, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Portion sizes have increased in recent years and this has been linked to increased energy intake. One consequence of this is that exposure to larger portion sizes might alter perceptions of what constitutes a ‘normal’ sized portion of food. The aim of the present research was to determine whether visual exposure to images of large portions changes perceptions about what constitutes a normal portion of food and whether this influences food consumption, relative to exposure to smaller portions. 68 female participants were asked to rate a series of 20 photographs of cookies. The photographs were either of large portion sizes (17e19 cookies) or small portion sizes (3e5 cookies). Participants were then asked to rate the extent to which they believed an intermediate sized serving of 10 cookies was normal in size. After this participants were asked to serve themselves a portion of cookies to eat as a snack. Visual exposure to larger portion sizes resulted in participants being more likely to rate the intermediate sized portion as being smaller
Besides explicit (conscious), also implicit (unconscious) associations affect our behavior. Such implicit associations to specific categories can be measured by an implicit association test (IAT). Our study was aimed to evaluate a food-specific IAT with the categories “low-caloric” and “highcaloric”. As a control, we used an IAT with the categories “flowers” and “insects”. The IAT score calculations were based on the improved algorithm by Greenwald et al. (2003). We included IAT scores of 120 subjects (82 females, BMI range 18.5e42 kg/m2, age range 19e68 years) in a regression model in order to evaluate the effect of BMI, gender, age, hunger, restraint eating, disinhibition and experienced hunger. The test-retest-reliability was assessed in a subpopulation of 35 subjects. All analyses were
European countries such as China, in western societies, the consumption of insects is not rooted in traditional nutrition. Data for the present study was collected from adults in Germany (n ¼ 502) and China (n ¼ 443). A crossnational comparison was conducted based on consumers' willingness to eat different insect-based, processed (e.g., cookies based on cricket flour) and unprocessed (i.e., crickets) food. The influence of food neophobia and attitudes on willingness to eat insects was examined. The Chinese rated all insect-based food more favourably with regard to taste, nutritional value, familiarity and social acceptance. Also, they reported greater willingness to eat the tested food products, but no differences were observed between their ratings of processed and unprocessed food. The Germans reported higher willingness to eat the processed insect-based foods compared to the unprocessed foods. Further results were that high scores for food neophobia, negative taste expectations, low scores for social acceptance and experience with eating insects in the past were significant predictors of the willingness to eat insects in both countries. Consequently, the introduction of insects as a food source in western societies seems more likely to succeed if insects are incorporated into familiar food items, which will reduce neophobic reactions and negative attitudes towards insect-based foods. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.055
A COHORT STUDY INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED SOCIAL NORMS ON HABITUAL FOOD CONSUMPTION J. Liu, J.M. Thomas, S. Higgs. School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK The effect of social norms on food consumption and food choice in the laboratory has been widely researched. However, many studies have focused on how social norm interventions change dietary choice, rather than investigating relationships between perceived social norms and eating behaviour. The current study examined the relationship between perceived social norms and self-reported habitual food consumption (fruit and vegetable intake, “junk” food and sweet beverage consumption), and if this relationship is moderated by the extent to which students identify with the norm referent group. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 650 undergraduate students (83% women, average age ¼ 19 years) using an online questionnaire. The results showed that when for controlling age, gender and ethnicity, perceived social norms about intake significantly predicted self-reported fruit and junk food intake among students who scored highly on identification with the norm referent group. There was a similar pattern of result for self-reported vegetable intake but no significant effect for sweet drink intake. These findings suggest that perceived social norms may be used to promote healthy food consumption. The reason why perceived social norms did not predict sweet drink intake is unclear and deserves further investigation. Follow-up assessment of this cohort may shed light on this issue.
219
considered significant with p < 0.05. In general, we observed positive IAT scores representing more positive associations to low-caloric food in comparison to high-caloric food (Food-IAT) and to flowers compared to insects (Control-IAT). Regression analyses including the aforementioned variables showed that the BMI and age contributed significantly to the model of the Food-IAT. Consequently, when including BMI groups (lean, overweight, obese) and gender in an ANOVA, we observed a weaker positive association to low-caloric food in obese. No gender differences were observed. Correlation analyses showed marginal reliability for the Control(R ¼ 0.435) and for the Food-IAT (R ¼ 0.385). In conclusion, the food-related IAT showed no relation to the obtained eating behavior traits and hunger. However, unlike the Control-IAT, the Food-IAT depicts BMI-related differences. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.057
EXPLICITLY HEALTHY, IMPLICITLY PLEASANT: IMPLICIT ASSOCIATIONS OF HEALTHY PRODUCTS WITH POSITIVE EMOTIONS I. Tijssen, I. Impric, L. Zandstra, G. Jager. Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands Sensory attributes (e.g. taste) are one of the main drivers of food-evoked emotions. People tend to have implicit associations that ‘foods that taste good are also unhealthy’. Nowadays, opposite intuitions are also becoming apparent. So if healthy foods are intuitively becoming tastier, and sensory attributes drive food-evoked emotions, is it safe to assume that today ‘healthy foods are implicitly associated with positive emotions’? Since attitudes to food are also influenced by eating behaviour (emotional, external, restraint) the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) was used to link eating behaviour to implicit associations. An Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to assess implicit attitudes of 36 healthy volunteers (normal BMI) towards two pairs of target-attitude concepts; food pictures (healthy vs. unhealthy) and emotional terms (positive vs. negative). Response time was used as an indicator of the strength of the association. Results revealed healthy foods were paired with positive emotions faster (m ¼ 710.12 ms) than unhealthy foods with positive emotions (m ¼ 1188.57 ms) and vice versa. Based on Greenwald's (2003) scoring algorithm the IAT effect (interpreted similar to Cohen's d) was highly significant (MD-score¼1.00, SD ¼ 0.50, t(35) ¼ 12.028, p < 0.001). Pearson’s correlations indicate a significant correlation between emotional eating score and IAT effect (r ¼ 0.325; p ¼ 0.027). These findings indicate that healthy foods are implicitly associated with positive emotions and the strength of the association is modulated by (emotional) eating behaviour. For the latter we have no clear explanation, except that emotional eaters aim to improve mood via eating. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.058
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.056
EXPOSURE TO LARGER FOOD PORTIONS ALTERS VISUAL JUDGMENTS OF PORTION SIZE NORMALITY
A FOOD-RELATED IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION TEST e IMPLICATIONS FOR OBESITY
E. Robinson, M. Oldham. University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Bedford Street South, L69 7ZA, UK
S. Frank, K. Giel, J. Heinze, H. Preissl. fMEG Center, University of Tübingen, Otfried-Müller-Str. 47, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Portion sizes have increased in recent years and this has been linked to increased energy intake. One consequence of this is that exposure to larger portion sizes might alter perceptions of what constitutes a ‘normal’ sized portion of food. The aim of the present research was to determine whether visual exposure to images of large portions changes perceptions about what constitutes a normal portion of food and whether this influences food consumption, relative to exposure to smaller portions. 68 female participants were asked to rate a series of 20 photographs of cookies. The photographs were either of large portion sizes (17e19 cookies) or small portion sizes (3e5 cookies). Participants were then asked to rate the extent to which they believed an intermediate sized serving of 10 cookies was normal in size. After this participants were asked to serve themselves a portion of cookies to eat as a snack. Visual exposure to larger portion sizes resulted in participants being more likely to rate the intermediate sized portion as being smaller
Besides explicit (conscious), also implicit (unconscious) associations affect our behavior. Such implicit associations to specific categories can be measured by an implicit association test (IAT). Our study was aimed to evaluate a food-specific IAT with the categories “low-caloric” and “highcaloric”. As a control, we used an IAT with the categories “flowers” and “insects”. The IAT score calculations were based on the improved algorithm by Greenwald et al. (2003). We included IAT scores of 120 subjects (82 females, BMI range 18.5e42 kg/m2, age range 19e68 years) in a regression model in order to evaluate the effect of BMI, gender, age, hunger, restraint eating, disinhibition and experienced hunger. The test-retest-reliability was assessed in a subpopulation of 35 subjects. All analyses were