Effects of slogans and human model characteristics in product advertisements.

Conducted a study with 96 adult male office workers to test the effect of slogans and human models on the credibility of advertisements, likeability, and intention to buy the advertised product. The slogan variations consisted of the use of nonqualified (one-sided communication) and qualified (two-sided communication) slogans. The model variations consisted of advertisements presented with a male model, a female model, a male-female model pair, and with no model. 3 consumer nondurable products frequently consumed by both males and females and often advertised in the printed media were used. Results reveal that Ss perceived the advertisements with the qualified slogans as more credible. The use of the male-female model pair also created greater credibility for the advertisement, and resulted in greater liking for and intention to buy the advertised product. Results are discussed in terms of existing theories of attitude change. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How pronutrition television programming affects children's dietary habits.

Investigated the effects of pro-nutrition TV programming on kindergarten-age children's nutritional knowledge, food preferences, and eating habits using a hierarchy of effects model as a conceptual basis. This model presents 4 levels (recall, information, preference, and behavior) that may be affected by pro-nutrition food advertisements and are sequenced by degree of complexity. A pretest–posttest control-group design was used. 59 children from 6 kindergarten classes (average age 6.2 yrs) were exposed to a series of 10 20-min videotapes over 10 class days. The videotapes were compiled from popular children's programming and public service announcements with themes stressing healthy eating habits and nutritional concepts. 50 control Ss did not view the tapes. Effects were measured using recall, information, preference, and behavioral assessments (i.e., the Behavioral Eating Test and the Pretend Eating Test). Significant results were obtained on the recall and information measures only, indicating that Ss attended to the TV programming and learned the nutrition concepts that were presented in the tapes but failed to change in terms of preference or consumption. Results are discussed in terms of their suggested support for the hierarchy-of-effects model and the implications for further research regarding the effects of pro-nutritional TV programming. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immediate and long-term recognition and generalization of advertised products as a function of age and presentation mode.

Examined 30 preschoolers' (aged 3–5 yrs), 30 kindergartners', and 30 2nd graders' immediate and long-term recognition memory for advertised products following an audio, video, or audiovisual presentation of commercials. A 3?×?3 factorial design was employed, with presentation mode (visual only, auditory only, and combined auditory and visual) and age of S as the factors. Ss recognized advertised products more often following exposure to visual or audiovisual commercial presentations than to auditory presentations. Age differences were detected for immediate and long-term product recognition. An errors analysis revealed that Ss of all 3 ages reported being exposed to nonadvertised foods that were members of the same class as the advertised products more frequently than would have been expected by chance. Findings are discussed in terms of the generalized effects of children's TV advertising. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Media differences in children's story synopses: Radio and television contrasted.

Evaluated the relative effectiveness of 2 media for conveying narrative information by presenting 44 young children (aged 3–6 yrs) and 44 adults with the same story via either TV or radio. Ss then retold the story to an adult from memory. Media differences were found, with children in the radio condition showing significantly more errors in comprehension and memory than children in the TV condition. Both the inclusion of inaccurate story content and the distortion of actual story characteristics occurred more frequently for the purely aural than for the aural and visual. Although Ss in the radio condition showed greater recall of dialog and sound effects than did Ss in the TV condition, the actual events recalled with dialog or other auditory features tended not to be highly important to the overall theme. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Altered food preferences after lesions in the basolateral region of the amygdala in the rat.

Studied the food preferences of 52 male hooded Lister and albino Wistar rats. 19 Ss were intact; 33 received bilateral lesions of the basolateral amygdala. Lesioned Ss chose different foods from controls in 10-min food-preference tests. The normal Ss ate primarily familiar chow, while the amygdala-lesioned Ss ate primarily novel foods. The lesioned Ss did not select indiscriminately but showed definite preferences. With repeated testing, the normal Ss' preferences became similar to those of the lesioned Ss. Food-preference tests in a disturbing environment suggested that the difference between the lesioned and control groups was not due to a general alteration in behavior such as fear. Other aspects of ingestive behavior, such as body weight regulation, were not primarily altered by the lesions. The basolateral amygdala may therefore be concerned with the selection of foods on the basis of previous experience. (24 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Priming effects of television food advertising on eating behavior.

Objective: Health advocates have focused on the prevalence of advertising for calorie-dense low-nutrient foods as a significant contributor to the obesity epidemic. This research tests the hypothesis that exposure to food advertising during TV viewing may also contribute to obesity by triggering automatic snacking of available food. Design: In Experiments 1a and 1b, elementary-school-age children watched a cartoon that contained either food advertising or advertising for other products and received a snack while watching. In Experiment 2, adults watched a TV program that included food advertising that promoted snacking and/or fun product benefits, food advertising that promoted nutrition benefits, or no food advertising. The adults then tasted and evaluated a range of healthy to unhealthy snack foods in an apparently separate experiment. Main Outcome Measures: Amount of snack foods consumed during and after advertising exposure. Results: Children consumed 45% more when exposed to food advertising. Adults consumed more of both healthy and unhealthy snack foods following exposure to snack food advertising compared to the other conditions. In both experiments, food advertising increased consumption of products not in the presented advertisements, and these effects were not related to reported hunger or other conscious influences. Conclusion: These experiments demonstrate the power of food advertising to prime automatic eating behaviors and thus influence far more than brand preference alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of affective assessment in modeling aggressive behavior.

Examined the role of affective assessment, a self-generated influence in learning acquisition, in the A. Bandura et al (1963) modeling-of-aggression procedure. 32 1st- and 2nd-grade children rated toys and televised acts of aggression against an inflated doll according to their personal affective preference. A matched control group of 32 children was yoked to the affective preferences of the experimental Ss. Control Ss were not shown the televised aggression. All Ss were then introduced to a free-play situation in which toys and an inflated doll were present. In line with the Bandura et al findings, it was predicted that observational learning would be demonstrated across conditions. However, in line with logical learning theory, it was predicted that Ss would model affectively preferred aggressive acts and toys more readily than affectively dispreferred acts and toys. Boys and girls differed significantly only in their imitation of positively rated aggressive actions, not in their imitation of negatively rated actions. Ramifications for the TV violence/aggression issue are discussed. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naughty but nice: A laboratory study of health information and food preferences in a community sample.

The influence of information about the fat content of food and cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention on taste ratings and food intake in a test meal was examined. 40 adults (aged 20–55 yrs) were allocated at random to CVD information or control conditions. Ss rated 2 brands of yogurt and 2 cheese sandwiches, with one flavor of each food labeled "full-fat" and the other "low-fat." In fact, fat levels were identical, and the label-flavor pairings were counterbalanced. Overall, Ss gave lower liking ratings to the low-fat labeled foods. However, Ss in the information condition tended to eat a smaller proportion of the full-fat sandwiches. Results support the utility of a laboratory setting for evaluating the influence of health-relevant information on responses to food. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reversal of innate aversions: Attempts to induce a preference for chili peppers in rats.

Although humans frequently develop preferences for innately unpalatable bitter or irritant substances, such preferences are extremely rare in animals. An attempt was made to understand the nature of this difference by 5 experiments with Charles River albino rats, using chili pepper as the unpalatable substance. In parallel with major aspects of the human experience with chili pepper, Ss were exposed to it as a flavoring in all their food for periods up to 11 mo from birth without significant preference enhancement. Gradual introduction of chili into the diet also had no effect, nor did poisoning and safety experiences designed to teach Ss that only chili-flavored foods were safe to eat. Seven pairings of chili-flavored diet with prompt recovery from thiamine deficiency did significantly attenuate the innate aversion and may have induced a chili preference in at least 1 case. Extensive experience with chili did not reliably make Ss much less sensitive to its oral effects. The only reliable way to eliminate chili aversion in rats is to destroy their chemical irritant sense, which was accomplished in 1 group. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Environmental enhancement of prosocial television content: Effects on interpersonal behavior, imaginative play, and self-regulation in a natural setting.

Investigated whether (a) prosocial TV can affect the behavior of urban poor children and (b) environmental supports that stimulate rehearsal and labeling of TV content are effective in a field setting. The social, imaginative, and self-regulatory behavior of 141 children aged 2 yrs 4 mo–5 yrs 4 mo in Head Start centers was observed before and during 1 of the following 4 experimental treatments: (a) neutral films, (b) prosocial TV only, (c) prosocial TV plus related play materials, and (d) prosocial TV plus related materials plus teacher training for rehearsal using verbal labeling and role playing. Ss in each condition saw 20 films in 8 wks. Prosocial TV alone produced few behavioral differencs from the control group. When classrooms were otherwise comparable, Ss receiving TV plus related materials had high levels of positive social interaction with peers and adults, of imaginative play, and of assertiveness and aggression. Those whose teachers were trained as well showed high levels of positive social interaction with peers, imaginative play, and assertiveness, but did not increase in aggression. Self-regulatory behavior was unaffected. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Judgmental subjectivity/objectivity and locus of choice in social comparison.

Two experiences were conducted to test the effects of judgmental subjectivity/objectivity on preferences of Ss to consult with like or unlike comparison partners. In Experiment 1, 101 Ss playing the role of admissions officers, were provided information about a college applicant and told either that the information was sufficient to allow for an objective decision on the candidate or that it was incomplete and, thus, that a subjective judgment was required. Objective-judgment Ss preferred dissimilar comparison partners. Subjective-judgment Ss preferred to compare with like others. Experiment 2, which involved a very different set of judgments (subjects played the role of jurors in a murder trial), replicated this finding and suggested that vested interest might influence Ss' motivation for comparison and comparison preferences. Implications of these results for a more precise understanding of social comparison were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between self-esteem and response style.

Response preferences of 30 high, 30 middle, and 30 low self-esteem undergraduate Ss on the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) were analyzed to examine relationships between sex, self-esteem, and response style. Based on discriminant analyses, significant results indicated that like and dislike preferences discriminated between self-esteem groups but not between sex groups. Ss of high and middle self-esteem groups responded more often with like preferences, while Ss of the low self-esteem group responded more often with dislike preferences across all sections of the SCII. Inspection of the Your Characteristics section revealed that high and middle self-esteem Ss attributed strengths to themselves more frequently than did low self-esteem Ss. Two-way ANOVAs of Ss' profile scores revealed significant self-esteem effects but not significant sex and interaction effects. Compared with test profiles of low self-esteem Ss, test profiles of high and middle self-esteem Ss exhibited greater differentiation and provided more helpful information regarding particular interests and occupational areas for further vocational exploration. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hunger enhances the expression of calorie- but not taste-mediated conditioned flavor preferences.

Compared ethanol-mediated flavor preferences to preferences mediated by saccharin, which is sweet but noncaloric, and sucrose, which is both sweet and caloric in 4 experiments, using 74 Long-Evans rats. Ss learned to associate grape or orange flavor conditioned stimulus/stimuli (CS) with (1) ethanol or saccharin solution or (2) either the other unconditioned stimulus/stimuli (UCS) or plain tap water. They were then given 2-bottle choice tests between the flavor CSs apart from the UCSs. Flavors associated with 5% ethanol were preferred over saccharin-paired and water-paired flavors by sated Ss, and food deprivation during the choice test enhanced this preference. Flavors associated with 8% sucrose were preferred over water-paired flavors, and this preference was also enhanced by food deprivation. Flavors associated with 0.028% or 0.25% saccharin were preferred over flavors paired with water. In all cases, calorie-mediated preferences, at their highest levels, were stronger than taste-mediated preferences. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychological difference between temporally predictable and unpredictable stressful events: Evidence for information control theories.

80 18–40 yr old female volunteers participated in an experiment in which temporal information about the onset of an aversive stimulus (shock) was varied to test the hypothesis, implied by information control theories, that predictable aversive events are more beneficial than unpredictable ones. Each S acted as her own control and received 6 predictable and 6 unpredictable shock trials. Findings support information control views. Ss reported to have felt less distress during the interval before the predictable shocks, they perceived the predictable shocks to be less aversive than the unpredictable ones, and autonomic indexes of arousal were lower during the signal for the predictable condition than during the equivalent periods for the unpredictable condition. 64% of the Ss preferred the predictable condition. There were no individual differences in personality or anxiety dimensions, as measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and the Trait scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, that could account for these preferences. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responses of observer rats (Rattus norvegicus) to complex, diet-related signals emitted by demonstrator rats.

We explored the effects of complex, food-identifying signals emitted by demonstrator Long-Evans rats (Rattus norvegicus) on food preferences of their observers. In Experiments 1 and 2, observers identified each of 2 or 3 foods their demonstrators had eaten before interacting with observers. In Experiment 3, individual observers interacted with groups of demonstrators. Some of these demonstrators had eaten one food, some another. Observers then chose between the 2 foods. The greater the proportion of demonstrators in a group that had eaten a diet, the greater the proportion of that diet the observers ate. In Experiment 4, each observer interacted over several weeks with a series of demonstrators and preferred each of the foods its demonstrators had eaten. In sum, the food preferences of observers were affected by several different types of complex, food-identifying signals like those one might expect rats to encounter outside the laboratory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Food preferences in Prader-Willi syndrome, normal weight and obese controls

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this work was to assess the specific food type (high carbohydrate, high fat, high protein) preference profiles of individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), obese controls and normal weight individuals. DESIGN: Subjects tasted a food predominantly high in carbohydrate, a food predominantly high in protein and a food predominantly high in fat over repeated trials and indicated their most preferred, second preferred and least preferred foods. Specific items tested on a given trial were counterbalanced in a block randomized fashion. SUBJECTS: These were 12 individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome, 12 matched obese controls (obese, but otherwise normal) and 14 normal weight subjects. MEASUREMENTS: The basic data were expressed as a proportion of each food type selected as most preferred over the total 27 trials. RESULTS: PWS subjects preferred high carbohydrate foods over high protein foods and high protein foods over high fat foods. These subjects demonstrated a statistically reliable difference in preference for high carbohydrate foods over high fat foods. However, normal weight and obese control subjects demonstrated no difference in food preferences. The only significant between-group comparisons were between PWS subjects and obese controls, with the PWS group showing a significantly greater preference for high carbohydrate foods than obese controls. CONCLUSIONS: The obesity of PWS was shown to have a significant and distinctly different food preference profile from normal weight and obese controls. The differences in food preference between the obese PWS and non-PWS subjects is in accord with the growing recognition of functional subgroups within the obese population, that may have not only differing underlying etiologies, but also distinct behavioral profiles of ingestion.     

Heredity and experience: Their relative importance in the development of taste preference in man.

Heritability estimates for sucrose, lactose, and sodium chloride taste preferences were uniformly low in a total of 311 pairs of monozygotic and like-sex dizygotic twins between 9 and 15 yrs of age. Black Ss preferred more concentrated solutions of all 3 tastants than did Caucasian Ss. This effect was independent of socioeconomic status in the total sample. Males preferred more concentrated solutions of sucrose and lactose than did females, but there were no sex differences in sodium chloride preference. The possibility that early intake experiences may play a role in the determination of enduring taste preferences in humans is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Class differences in the food rules mothers impose on their children: a cross-national study

Many studies indicate that children in middle-class families have healthier eating habits than children in lower class families. Class differences in food rules, which parents and especially mothers impose on their children, may underlie these social inequalities in food consumption. The present study uses education as a classifying variable and analyses whether mothers with higher education prescribe more "healthy" foodstuffs for their children and whether they restrict more "unhealthy" food items than less educated mothers. Moreover, the study examines whether higher class mothers consider health aspects more often and the preferences of their family members less often in their choice of food, and whether class differences in these considerations explain class differences in food rules. To answer these questions, questionnaires on the food practices of 849 women living in middle-class or lower class districts in Maastricht (the Netherlands), Liège (Belgium) and Aachen (Germany) were collected and analysed. The majority of mothers in each city prescribed primarily foods that were served at dinner like meat and vegetables, and most mothers limited their children's consumption of sweet foods, soft drinks and snacks. Higher class mothers restricted more foods, but prescribed as many food items as their lower class counterparts. Class differences in the number of restricted foods were partly, but not completely, explained by class differences in health and taste considerations. Despite national variations in dietary habits and possibly in the education of children, class differences in food rules and the explanatory power of health and taste considerations were comparable in the three cities.     

Arousal effects on visual preferences in neonates.

Investigated the influence of arousal level on visual preferences by observing the looking preferences of 12 full-term neonates once in a more aroused condition (before feeding while unswaddled) and once in a less aroused condition (after feeding while swaddled). The stimuli were unpatterned light panels illuminated at temporal frequencies of 1, 2, 4, and 8 Hz. Significant linear relationships between amount of looking and stimulus frequency were found in both arousal conditions. However, the effects were in opposite directions in the 2 conditions. Ss looked more as temporal frequency increased when they were less aroused and looked less as temporal frequency increased when more aroused. Thus, even when awake and attending, infants' visual preferences vary systematically with changes in both internal and external amounts of stimulation such that there is an inverse relationship between level of arousal and preferred temporal frequency. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)