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Psychosocial predictors of eating consistency
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39th BFDG 2015 / Appetite 101 (2016) 214e238
DESCRIPTIVE AND LIKING SOCIAL NORM MESSAGES ENHANCE THE CONSUMPTION OF A CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLE IN HEALTHY STUDENTS: SUSTAINED EFFECTS AFTER A 24 HOUR DELAY J.M. Thomas, J. Liu, E.L. Robinson, P. Aveyard, C.P. Herman, S. Higgs. School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK There is evidence that social norm messages can increase the selection of fruit and vegetables but it is unclear whether the effect of exposure wanes with time. There is no evidence whether information about what people like (liking norm) could have the same effect. We investigated both in a 2 4 experimental design. The two factors were delay or no delay and five message types: liking norm, descriptive norm (what people do), health message, food-based control (vegetable variety), and a message unrelated to food. After exposure to the messages the 353 student participants were given a buffet either immediately (no delay), or 24 hours later (delay). The buffet contained three raw vegetables, three energy-dense foods and dips. There was no main effect of message but there was a message x habitual consumption interaction. Compared to the message unrelated to food, neither the food-based control nor health message affected intake. However, both the descriptive and liking norm significantly enhanced the consumption of broccoli for habitual low fruit and vegetable consumers (p < 0.05). This was not affected by delay. These results suggest that descriptive and liking norms may be used to promote vegetable intake in low consumers, without reduction of effect after 24 hours and without compensatory effects on other snack foods. The data provide further impetus for a social norms approach to promoting vegetable intake. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.051
HARMFUL OR HELPFUL? THE EFFECT OF SELF-PERCEIVED FOOD ADDICTION ON EATING BEHAVIOUR H. Ruddock, A. Jones, E. Robinson, M. Field, C. Hardman. Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Bedford Street South, Liverpool, L69 7ZA, UK Despite considerable controversy in the scientific community, the concept of “food addiction” is widely accepted within the lay public and many people perceive themselves to be addicted to food. However, the effect of this self-perceived food addiction on food intake has not been systematically investigated. A potential concern is that believing oneself to be a food addict may reduce perceived control over eating, which could result in increased food intake. Alternatively, self-perceived food addiction may enable individuals to recognise their limited self-control, which could help to reduce food intake. To address these possibilities, the current study examined the effect of experimentally manipulating food addiction beliefs on food intake. Female participants (N ¼ 64) completed food-related Implicit Association and Stop-signal tasks, and received bogus feedback on their performance which indicated that they had either high or low levels of food addiction. Subsequent intake of high-calorie foods was assessed in an ad-libitum taste task. Results indicated that participants who were led to believe that they had a high level of food addiction consumed significantly fewer calories compared to participants in the “low food addiction” group. This highlights the short-term effects of food addiction beliefs on food intake, suggesting that self-perceived food addiction may encourage individuals to limit their intake of certain foods. Future research should explore the longer term effects of self-perceived food addiction on eating behaviour and weight management. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.052
Unexpected food temptations may cause fluctuations in consumption. If frequent, such tendency may contribute to obesity. A potential protective strategy is to stay consistent e to maintain a similar eating pattern across different situations. Such strategy has previously been shown to facilitate weight maintenance and decrease risk for cardiovascular disease. However, personality and social predictors of consistency have not been studied. 145 women completed personality tests and reported their momentary eating behaviour 6 times/day over 10 observational days via Experience Sampling Method. For each meal, participants indicated their consistency e if current meal was similar to their typical meal in terms of healthiness or size. Further, participants indicated if they were alone or with others, and if they were at home or away from home. Being 2SD higher in self-control increased the chances of having consistent meals (OR 1.74 95%CI 1.17e2.58), whereas being 2SD higher in reward sensitivity lowered chances of consistency (OR 0.59 95%CI 0.38e0.94). In social situations, consistency was undermined if participants ate away from home (OR 0.32 95%CI 0.25e0.40) or with others (OR 0.58 95%CI 0.46e0.73). Older women were less consistent when eating with others (OR 0.58 95%CI 0.36e0.95). Interventions aimed to improve eating consistency should target self-control skills and regulation of reward sensitivity. Additional focus should be given to social situations that undermine consistency. Helping people stay consistent in spite of temptations could potentially reduce risk for obesity. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.053
EXPLOITING THE SELF-REGULATORY POWER OF NORMATIVE INFLUENCES ON HEALTHY EATING: THE ROLE OF PERSONAL NORMS ABOUT MEAL PREPARATION lica-Lisbon School of Business & A.I. de Almeida Costa. CUBE, Cato lica Portuguesa, Palma de Cima, 1649-023 Economics, Universidade Cato Lisboa, Portugal Overeating and the global obesity epidemic are often associated to the decline of home cooking and the growing consumption of meals prepared away from home. Yet, notably few have investigated so far the self-regulatory processes by which by which consumers might be motivated to adopt and maintain healthier meal choices. In particular, the potential effects of personal norms regarding meal preparation have hardly been explored. This paper tested the effects of activating personal norms about meal preparation on the self-regulation of food choices. First, a survey was conducted (N ¼ 482 adult meal preparers) e covering behavioral, attitudinal and normative measures -, which revealed a clear preference for meals prepared at home and only a moderate demand for convenience foods. Such preference was driven by a sense of responsibility towards household welfare, with its effect on behavioral and habit intensity being fully mediated by personal norms. Second, a lab experiment (N ¼ 91 graduate students) was performed, demonstrating that the activation of personal norms effectively increased preference for cooking one's own meals, relatively to consuming meals prepared away from home. In both studies, personal norms were shown to impact meal choices independently of affect or social norms associated to cooking. In view of this, it is proposed that public health policies and social marketing messages should take the activation of personal norms about meal preparation into account, in order to more effectively promote healthy eating habits and help fight the obesity epidemic. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.054
HOW TO NUDGE CONSUMERS TOWARDS THE CONSUMPTION OF INSECTS
PSYCHOSOCIAL PREDICTORS OF EATING CONSISTENCY
C. Hartmann, J. Shi, A. Giusto, M. Siegrist. Department Health Science and €tstrasse 22, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland Technology, ETH Zürich, Universita
, J. Lu, L.K. Fellows. Institute of Psychology, University of U. Vainik, L. Dube €ituse 2, 50409, Tartu, Estonia Tartu, Na
Based on their high nutritional value and low production costs, insects are an excellent and sustainable source of animal protein. In contrast to non-
39th BFDG 2015 / Appetite 101 (2016) 214e238
DESCRIPTIVE AND LIKING SOCIAL NORM MESSAGES ENHANCE THE CONSUMPTION OF A CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLE IN HEALTHY STUDENTS: SUSTAINED EFFECTS AFTER A 24 HOUR DELAY J.M. Thomas, J. Liu, E.L. Robinson, P. Aveyard, C.P. Herman, S. Higgs. School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK There is evidence that social norm messages can increase the selection of fruit and vegetables but it is unclear whether the effect of exposure wanes with time. There is no evidence whether information about what people like (liking norm) could have the same effect. We investigated both in a 2 4 experimental design. The two factors were delay or no delay and five message types: liking norm, descriptive norm (what people do), health message, food-based control (vegetable variety), and a message unrelated to food. After exposure to the messages the 353 student participants were given a buffet either immediately (no delay), or 24 hours later (delay). The buffet contained three raw vegetables, three energy-dense foods and dips. There was no main effect of message but there was a message x habitual consumption interaction. Compared to the message unrelated to food, neither the food-based control nor health message affected intake. However, both the descriptive and liking norm significantly enhanced the consumption of broccoli for habitual low fruit and vegetable consumers (p < 0.05). This was not affected by delay. These results suggest that descriptive and liking norms may be used to promote vegetable intake in low consumers, without reduction of effect after 24 hours and without compensatory effects on other snack foods. The data provide further impetus for a social norms approach to promoting vegetable intake. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.051
HARMFUL OR HELPFUL? THE EFFECT OF SELF-PERCEIVED FOOD ADDICTION ON EATING BEHAVIOUR H. Ruddock, A. Jones, E. Robinson, M. Field, C. Hardman. Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Bedford Street South, Liverpool, L69 7ZA, UK Despite considerable controversy in the scientific community, the concept of “food addiction” is widely accepted within the lay public and many people perceive themselves to be addicted to food. However, the effect of this self-perceived food addiction on food intake has not been systematically investigated. A potential concern is that believing oneself to be a food addict may reduce perceived control over eating, which could result in increased food intake. Alternatively, self-perceived food addiction may enable individuals to recognise their limited self-control, which could help to reduce food intake. To address these possibilities, the current study examined the effect of experimentally manipulating food addiction beliefs on food intake. Female participants (N ¼ 64) completed food-related Implicit Association and Stop-signal tasks, and received bogus feedback on their performance which indicated that they had either high or low levels of food addiction. Subsequent intake of high-calorie foods was assessed in an ad-libitum taste task. Results indicated that participants who were led to believe that they had a high level of food addiction consumed significantly fewer calories compared to participants in the “low food addiction” group. This highlights the short-term effects of food addiction beliefs on food intake, suggesting that self-perceived food addiction may encourage individuals to limit their intake of certain foods. Future research should explore the longer term effects of self-perceived food addiction on eating behaviour and weight management. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.052
Unexpected food temptations may cause fluctuations in consumption. If frequent, such tendency may contribute to obesity. A potential protective strategy is to stay consistent e to maintain a similar eating pattern across different situations. Such strategy has previously been shown to facilitate weight maintenance and decrease risk for cardiovascular disease. However, personality and social predictors of consistency have not been studied. 145 women completed personality tests and reported their momentary eating behaviour 6 times/day over 10 observational days via Experience Sampling Method. For each meal, participants indicated their consistency e if current meal was similar to their typical meal in terms of healthiness or size. Further, participants indicated if they were alone or with others, and if they were at home or away from home. Being 2SD higher in self-control increased the chances of having consistent meals (OR 1.74 95%CI 1.17e2.58), whereas being 2SD higher in reward sensitivity lowered chances of consistency (OR 0.59 95%CI 0.38e0.94). In social situations, consistency was undermined if participants ate away from home (OR 0.32 95%CI 0.25e0.40) or with others (OR 0.58 95%CI 0.46e0.73). Older women were less consistent when eating with others (OR 0.58 95%CI 0.36e0.95). Interventions aimed to improve eating consistency should target self-control skills and regulation of reward sensitivity. Additional focus should be given to social situations that undermine consistency. Helping people stay consistent in spite of temptations could potentially reduce risk for obesity. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.053
EXPLOITING THE SELF-REGULATORY POWER OF NORMATIVE INFLUENCES ON HEALTHY EATING: THE ROLE OF PERSONAL NORMS ABOUT MEAL PREPARATION lica-Lisbon School of Business & A.I. de Almeida Costa. CUBE, Cato lica Portuguesa, Palma de Cima, 1649-023 Economics, Universidade Cato Lisboa, Portugal Overeating and the global obesity epidemic are often associated to the decline of home cooking and the growing consumption of meals prepared away from home. Yet, notably few have investigated so far the self-regulatory processes by which by which consumers might be motivated to adopt and maintain healthier meal choices. In particular, the potential effects of personal norms regarding meal preparation have hardly been explored. This paper tested the effects of activating personal norms about meal preparation on the self-regulation of food choices. First, a survey was conducted (N ¼ 482 adult meal preparers) e covering behavioral, attitudinal and normative measures -, which revealed a clear preference for meals prepared at home and only a moderate demand for convenience foods. Such preference was driven by a sense of responsibility towards household welfare, with its effect on behavioral and habit intensity being fully mediated by personal norms. Second, a lab experiment (N ¼ 91 graduate students) was performed, demonstrating that the activation of personal norms effectively increased preference for cooking one's own meals, relatively to consuming meals prepared away from home. In both studies, personal norms were shown to impact meal choices independently of affect or social norms associated to cooking. In view of this, it is proposed that public health policies and social marketing messages should take the activation of personal norms about meal preparation into account, in order to more effectively promote healthy eating habits and help fight the obesity epidemic. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.054
HOW TO NUDGE CONSUMERS TOWARDS THE CONSUMPTION OF INSECTS
PSYCHOSOCIAL PREDICTORS OF EATING CONSISTENCY
C. Hartmann, J. Shi, A. Giusto, M. Siegrist. Department Health Science and €tstrasse 22, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland Technology, ETH Zürich, Universita
, J. Lu, L.K. Fellows. Institute of Psychology, University of U. Vainik, L. Dube €ituse 2, 50409, Tartu, Estonia Tartu, Na
Based on their high nutritional value and low production costs, insects are an excellent and sustainable source of animal protein. In contrast to non-