Food Choice in Children: Television Commercials and Fading Behavioral Effects

• In Event: Youth, Media, Food Choice, and Obesity

Abstract

Previous research demonstrates that commercials can influence food choice in children but little is known about the duration of this effect. We conducted an experiment (N=134) where seven- to eleven-year-old children watched a cartoon with an embedded advertising block. Half of the children saw a commercial for a specific brand of chocolate candies. After watching, we measured actual food choice. We found that children watching the target commercial chose the advertised brand significantly more often compared to children not watching the target commercial. The primary contribution of the present study is the examination of how temporal delay influences this effect. We show that commercials’ impact on behavior is dependent on the temporal delay between exposure and food choice, as the effect faded quickly. This represents a boundary condition for the behavioral effect: Although the behavioral effect exists, it is only evident immediately after exposure and does not persist over time.

Authors

• Florian Arendt, LMU Munich

• Brigitte Naderer, U of Vienna

• Maral Abdollahi, U of Vienna

• Andreas Mittelberger, U of Vienna

• Olga Surzhyk, U of Vienna

• Lin Zhou, U of Vienna