Regulating food consumption: Action messages can help or hurt

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Science
• Health Psychology
• Consumer Behavior

Background:

• Messages encouraging active behavior change may unintentionally increase food intake by promoting a general goal to act.
• This effect is hypothesized to be specific to active-approach behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether messages promoting active-avoidance behaviors can effectively decrease food consumption.
• To examine the differential impact of active-approach versus active-avoidance messages on food consumption.

Main Methods:

• Participants were exposed to healthy eating messages varying in behavioral direction (approach vs. avoid) and amount (action vs. inaction).
• Following message exposure, participants underwent a taste test involving snack selection and consumption (healthy or unhealthy).

Main Results:

• No significant differences in snack selection (healthy vs. unhealthy) were observed across message conditions.
• Participants viewing active-approach messages consumed significantly more food than those viewing active-avoidance messages, irrespective of snack choice.
• No consumption differences were found for less active behavior messages between approach and avoidance conditions.

Conclusions:

• Individuals are sensitive to the action direction (approach vs. avoidance) advocated in health messages promoting active behavior change.
• Message framing can modulate food consumption, with active-avoidance messages potentially reducing intake.