The Secret Parents Want to Know: How Social Appeals Influence the Information Processing of Healthy Foods

• In Event: HIGH-DENSITY: Emotion, Cognition, and Health: Automatic and Controlled Processes

Abstract

Obesity is a global health problem, increasingly prevalent among youngsters. Unlike junk food commercials, pro-nutritional messages have neglected the potential of social appeals. Biological and psychological frameworks guide predictions about the effects of social appeals. To test the predictions, two experiments with a 2 (Age) x 3 (Social Appeal) x 16 (Message) mixed factorial design were conducted to assess participants’ attentional self-selection, visual attentional focus, positive affect, negative affect, arousal levels and their subsequent encoding.

Author

• Lelia Samson, Radboud University