Psychologists from Booth University in Chicago have found an easy way to persuade teens to give up fast food and choose healthy foods.
Scientists offer to manipulate their desire to go against the system and a heightened sense of justice, the study said.”Food marketing is specifically designed to create positive emotional associations with unhealthy foods, to link them to feelings of happiness and fun,” said Professor Christopher J. Bryan, one of the study’s authors.
To break these associations, scientists suggest simply telling and showing teens how marketers manage their minds. The effectiveness of admission is proven by the example of eighth-graders from Texas.
Psychologists divided adolescents into several groups: one provided traditional material on the benefits of healthy eating for the body, and the other – information on how marketing campaigns affect people for profit. Particular attention was paid to the fact that advertising is aimed at vulnerable groups: young children and poor families.
A survey conducted after the experiment showed that the consumption of fast food by schoolchildren decreased by 31%. The boys were especially impressed. Psychologists say that for persistent aversion to junk food, marketing information needs to be refreshed every three months.
