Education vs. Entertainment: The Effect of TV Cooking Shows on Adolescents’ Cravings, Hunger and Food Preference

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Poster Session: Children, Adolescents and the Media Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Aim: To contrast the effects of educational and entertainment TV cooking shows on adolescents’ cravings, hunger and food preference.

Study design: Experimental
Procedure: The participants (N=71) were assigned to two experimental groups and one control group, the first experimental group (N=29) watched a TV cooking show that solely focused on food preparation, the second group (n=25) watched a show with food preparation and more elements of entertainment while the control group (N=17) watched a non food related science show.

Results
Watching the educational show induced cravings of the foods that were prepared on the TV cooking show B=2.485, SE= 1.107, Wald χ2 (1) =5.079, p= .02 while the entertainment TV cooking show had no effect. None of the TV cooking shows affected hunger, food preference or food choice behavior.

Conclusion
Educational TV cooking shows induce cravings of foods that are prepared in them compared to entertainment TV cooking shows

Authors

• Yandisa Ngqangashe, University of Antwerpen

• Charlotte Jacqueline De Backer, U of Antwerpen