How making decisions for children affects the food choices of adults

Parents and other adults such as baby sitters, daycare workers, and teachers are responsible for making choices that contribute to the development and well-being of the children in their care. In a typical day, for example, parents decide what and how much their children eat, the amount of time they spend online, the television programs they watch, and the time they go to bed. In this research, we identify two common approaches -imposition and accommodation-that are available to decision makers and outline how these decisions affect the feelings of power and eating behaviors of the adults themselves. Four experiments and one field study demonstrate that adults shape their own consumption choices based on whether they accommodate the virtuous (i.e. healthy) vs. indulgent (i.e. unhealthy) preferences of the child or impose their own preferences. We find that when adults accommodate the child's preferences, they choose healthier foods for themselves. Finally, we demonstrate that the social context of consumption moderates these effects. We find support for our power-based theory in five studies using a variety of methods, participants, and contexts. The results have important implications for the health of adults who take care of children.