Irresistibly bland: Implicit desire for ultra-processed foods despite enjoyment-based preference for healthy foods

Two studies were conducted to examine implicit and explicit attitudes about the tastiness and desirability of healthy and junk foods. Study 1 employed a factorial design, in which the Implicit Association Test (IAT) used evaluation terms related to enjoyment (i.e., tastiness) or craving (i.e., desirability) of foods. Both conditions in this study were conducted with American and French participant pools. Condition Enjoyment was expected to reveal evidence supporting the "unhealthy = tasty" intuition in the American sample (Raghunathan et al., 2006), and the "healthy = tasty" intuition in the French sample (Werle et al., 2013). Our results found an implicit preference for healthy foods in both samples, aligning with the French "healthy = tasty" intuition. Additionally, the study found evidence of an implicit bias favoring junk food when using evaluation terms related to desirability, in both American and French samples. Study 2 replicated the IAT findings from condition Craving in Study 1, and provided evidence that junk foods are also found more desirable than healthy foods based on explicit ratings of irresistibility. Combined with prior findings, the present studies shed light on the prevalence of ultra-processed foods in the Western diet, despite evidence of a preference for natural, healthy foods.