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The effects of food advertising and cognitive load on food choices
Since the majority of the evidence on the association between the quality of the American diet and advertising has been reported in children, Zimmerman & Shimoga (2014) planned to determine the impact that televised advertising has on adults’ food choices. The 351 participants were firstly randomized into one of four groups: exposed to food advertising and a cognitively challenging task; food advertising encounter and non-cognitively demanding task; seeing advertising that are non-food related and performing a cognitively tough task; or viewing non-food advertising before performing a non-cognitively straining task. The outcomes measured were the number and calorie contents of the unhealthy snacks selected by the subjects. The data revealed that those exposed to food advertising chose 28% more unhealthy snacks than those who encountered non-food advertising. Moreover, the caloric values of these snacks chosen by the food advertising-exposed half of the sample were 65 kcal higher. The different adverts did not significantly affect the individuals assigned to the less cognitively demanding task, but there was a large and significant discrepancy in influence among the participants that completed cognitively challenging tasks. Those who came across food-related adverts ate 43% more unhealthy snacks, taking in 94 more total calories, compared to the subjects who saw non-food adverts. This research concludes that televised food advertising strongly influences people’s food choices, particularly when these individuals are cognitively occupied. [NPID: perception, advertising, children, food choices, decision-making, cognition, television]
Year: 2014
