Carolina O.C. Werle

Just thinking about exercise makes me serve more food. Physical activity and calorie compensation.

Based on the findings demonstrating compensation between mental effort and subsequent food consumption, this article focuses on the compensatory mechanism between thinking about physical activity and food intake. Results from a field experiment indicate that simply reading about physical activity leads participants to compensate by serving themselves more snacks. The amount of snacks served was mediated by biased calorie estimation. Additionally, we also manipulated the way physical activity was perceived (as tiring exercise or as a fun activity). Although results suggest extra consumption when exercise is perceived as tiring, differences were not statistically significant.

Consequences of Belonging to the 'Clean Plate Club'

How does encouraging a child to “clean” his or her plate influence eating behavior away from home? Parents who insist that their child clean his or her plate may be asserting excess control that could backfire if it inhibits the development of their child’s self-control around food. If this is true, children who have been conditioned to clean their plate may end up requesting more food when excess controls do not exist, such as when they are away from home.

Moralities in food and health research

Abstract Society has imposed strict rules about what constitutes a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ food and ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ eating behaviour at least since antiquity. Today, the moral discourse of what we should and should not eat is perhaps stronger than ever, and it informs consumers, researchers and policy-makers about what we all should consume, research and regulate. We propose four types of moralities, underlying sets of moral assumptions, that orient the contemporary discourses of food and health: the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ nature of food items, the virtue of self-control and moderation, the management of body size and the actions of market agents. We demonstrate how these moralities influence consumer behaviour as well as transformative research of food and health and develop a critical discussion of the impact of the underlying morality in each domain. We conclude by providing a few guidelines for changes in research questions, designs and methodologies for future research and call for a general reflection on the consequences of the uncovered moralities in research on food and health towards an inclusive view of food well-being.

How negative experiences shape long-term food preferences. Fifty years from the World War II combat front

How does a persons first experience with a foreign or unfamiliar food shape their long-term preference and behavior toward that food? To investigate this, 493 American veterans of World War II were surveyed about their preference for Japanese and Chinese food. Pacific veterans who experienced high levels of combat had a stronger dislike for these Asian foods than those Pacific veterans experiencing lower levels of combat. Consistent with expectations, combat experience for European veterans had no impact on their preference for Asian food. The situation in which one is initially exposed to an unfamiliar food may long continue to shape preferences.

Distinguishing the affective and cognitive bases of implicit attitudes to improve prediction of food choices.

Eating behaviors largely result from automatic processes. Yet, in existing research, automatic or implicit attitudes toward food often fail to predict eating behaviors. Applying findings in cognitive neuroscience research, we propose and find that a central reason why implicit attitudes toward food are not good predictors of eating behaviors is that implicit attitudes are driven by two distinct constructs that often have diverging evaluative consequences: the automatic affective reactions to food (e.g., tastiness; the affective basis of implicit attitudes) and the automatic cognitive reactions to food (e.g., healthiness; the cognitive basis of implicit attitudes). More importantly, we find that the affective and cognitive bases of implicit attitudes directly and uniquely influence actual food choices under different conditions. While the affective basis of implicit attitude is the main driver of food choices, it is the only driver when cognitive resources during choice are limited. The cognitive basis of implicit attitudes uniquely influences food choices when cognitive resources during choice are plentiful but only for participants low in impulsivity. Researchers interested in automatic processes in eating behaviors could thus benefit by distinguishing between the affective and cognitive bases of implicit attitudes.

Les effets de la mention d’origine géographique locale sur les perceptions alimentaires

Cette recherche examine l’impact de la mention d’origine locale sur les perceptions et l’intention d’achat des produits alimentaires. Elle met par ailleurs en évidence le mécanisme psychologique spécifique à l’origine locale expliquant ces effets. Deux expérimentations, réalisées sur 632 consommateurs au total, montrent qu’un fromage (étude 1) et une pomme (étude 2) sont perçus comme étant plus sains, meilleurs au goût, plus respectueux de l’environnement et du travail des agriculteurs quand ils sont présentés comme étant des produits locaux (versus nationaux ou issus d’une autre « région »). L’intention d’achat est également plus élevée quand les produits portent la mention d’origine locale. L’étude 2 montre que ces effets peuvent être expliqués par la théorie des niveaux de représentations. Le produit local est perçu comme étant plus proche spatialement et psychologiquement par le consommateur, qui peut ainsi imaginer plus concrètement la manière dont il a été cultivé ou préparé ; ce qui influence positivement les perceptions et l’intention d’achat. Ces effets sont mesurés sur des produits qui ne sont pas typiques du territoire. Ils perdurent quel que soit le niveau d’identité locale de la personne qui évalue le produit.

The effects of indication of local geographical origin on food perceptions

This research examines the impact of a local origin label on perceptions and purchase intent regarding food products. It also reveals the psychological mechanism specific to local origin to explain these effects. Two experiments, conducted on a total of 632 consumers, show that cheese (Study 1) and apples (Study 2) are perceived as healthier, better tasting, and more respectful of the environment and the work of farmers when they are presented as local foods (as opposed to national or from another “region”). Purchase intention is also higher when products are labeled as locally sourced. Study 2 shows that these effects can be explained by construal level theory. Local produce is perceived as spatially and psychologically closer by the consumer, who can thus picture more specifically how it was grown and prepared, and this in turn positively influences perceptions and purchase intent. These effects are measured on products that are not typical of the territory. They persist regardless of the degree of local identity of the person evaluating the product.

Preventing Youth Obesity: The Efficacy of the Social Risk Argument on Eating Intentions and Behaviors

To evaluate the efficacy of obesity prevention campaigns targeting adolescents, a controlled experiment with 797 underprivileged high and middle school students was conducted. Participants were exposed to different prevention messages and their eating behavior (choice of a snack) and intentions to monitor food intake were measured. Results demonstrate that obesity prevention advertisements using social risks lead to a healthier food choice in comparison with advertisements using the health risk. The efficacy of the message regulatory orientation (prevention vs. promotion) to change intentions to monitor food intake varies according to the type of argument used (social vs. health): The health argument is more effective when it highlights the risks of having an unbalanced diet than when it highlights the benefits of a balanced diet. These results question the efficacy of current prevention campaign strategies.

What a Delicious Name! The Relationship Between Embodiment and Food Consumption: An Abstract

Traditionally, cognitive scientists have conceived the human brain as the main organ capable of building internal representations of the external world (van Dijk et al. 2008). However, in a shift from this paradigm (i.e., information processing), embodied cognition theories support that cognition and behavior can also derive from bodily states and its interaction with the external world (Barsalou 1999; Lakoff and Johnson 1999; Niedenthal et al. 2005). Following this stream of research, Cacioppo and colleagues (1993) found that flexor and extensor arm movements can activate approach and avoidance motivational states, respectively. In a similar way, Topolinski et al. (2014) recently shows that pronouncing a specific sort of letter arrangements that resembles the oral kinematics of deglutition (swallowing-like, inward movement) or expectoration (spitting-like, outward movement) can shape people’s attitudes toward a particular target (Topolinski et al. 2014). Extending these findings, we propose that food labels can drive human cognition and behaviors. That is, we suggest that food names might exert an unobtrusive effect on food perception, intentions, and actual food consumption through an embodied mechanism, so that names that induce inward movement lead to more favorable evaluations and higher consumption. In a series of three studies using both French- and English-speaking samples, we show evidence for the proposed embodied effect. First, we demonstrate that inward (vs. outward) oral movement activated through food name leads to lower healthiness perception of a food item. Second, we show that inducing an inward (vs. outward) oral movement can boost (vs. dampen) a dish desirability. Finally, we show that inward (vs. outward) oral movements lead to higher food consumption. This research contributes to marketing theory and practice in several ways. First, the research addresses the need for studies that explore the effects of verbal information on consumers’ perceptions (Krishna, 2012). Second, we show that the same pattern of effects stands for both English- and French-speaking samples, suggesting that the effect is not contingent on the language people speak. Finally, this research has both managerial and social implications. From a managerial standpoint, marketers should consider naming their products—food and nonfood—in order to trigger approach motivation. From a public and policy perspective, in turn, legislators could restrict the use of “approach food names” for unhealthy food, while stimulating it for healthy food as an endeavor to increase healthier consumption behavior.

What a Delicious Name! Articulatory Movement Effects on Food Perception and Consumption

Modality-specific sensory systems are capable to directly influence human perception. This research investigates how the activation of oral movements that resemble either ingestion (inward movement) or expectoration (outward movement) kinematics affect food perception and consumption. We build on the idea that oral movements serve as simple knowledge basis for more complex judgments. Five studies show that unobtrusively activating oral movements through food names that mimic ingestion (vs. expectoration) lead to increases in perceived taste and food consumption. We provide evidence on the role of oral movement as the underlying mechanism driving the effects. We show that these effects take place across different languages and are consistent when we use words only, words and image, or actual products. Marketers should find important implications in recognizing that inward names can increase food evaluation and consumption.