A “Forbidden Fruit Effect”: An Eye-Tracking Study on Children’s Visual Attention to Food Marketing

Abstract

Obesity in children is an international health concern. Against this background, there is an increasing interest in understanding how healthy and unhealthy food marketing in narrative media can affect children. In particular, children’s implicit reactions, such as visual attention and emotional arousal, are far from being sufficiently understood. We conducted an eye-tracking study, presenting children one of two versions of a narrative media-stimulus, either presenting an unhealthy food (i.e., candy condition; N = 34), or a healthy food (i.e., fruit condition; N = 34). As dependent variables, we investigated dwell time (i.e., visual attention) and pupil dilation (i.e., emotional arousal). As moderators, we included children’s prohibition of candy at home and children’s level of BMI in our models. Our results indicate that mean dwell time did not differ between conditions and that the moderators did not exert any effect. Moreover, pupil dilation did not differ between conditions but was moderated by parents’ candy prohibition at home (ηp2 = 0.080). The results show that children who are not allowed to consume candy at home react with higher emotional arousal when exposed to candy placements than children allowed to eat candy at home. Thus, depending on children’s contextual factors, children react differently to unhealthy food cues.

Psychological Impact and Influence of Animation on Viewer’s Visual Attention and Cognition: A Systematic Literature Review, Open Challenges, and Future Research Directions

“…However, no significant difference was observed in the children's visual attention or emotional arousal towards candy or food conditions. There is a significant difference in children's emotional arousal to unhealthy products due to the parent's restriction of candy at home [ 32 ].…”

“…Although the studies reported in this survey showed a significant difference and the hypothesis generated was accepted, some limitations still exist. The common limitations identified in the studies are short period of time for implementation [ 53 ], smaller sample size [ 27 , 37 ], nongeneralizability [ 25 , 27 , 32 , 39 , 53 ], nonrandomization trials [ 52 ], and no control group and post only group [ 45 ]. Few other studies have reported the possibility of cross-contamination among the control and experimental group [ 33 ], increased dropout of participants before completing the post-test questionnaire [ 52 ], and underestimation of participant's knowledge of expressing words which might directly affect the animation [ 57 ].…”

“…Similarly, the instructions designed to visualize in animation may not be appropriate for visualizing the same in real phenomena [ 39 ]. Binder et al [ 32 ] suggested conducting more eye-tracking experiments with integrated food cues to attract children's attention toward healthy foods.…”

A Paradox of Ethics: Why People in Good Organizations do Bad Things

“…The forbidden-fruit effect means that the more ethical an organization becomes, the more attractive unethical behavior becomes until it could not be resisted. This second effect of the downward force is captured by the expression, “Good makes bad more attractive.” The forbidden-fruit effect is present in the literature (e.g., Binder et al, 2020 ; Fitzgibbon et al, 2020 ). The name of the effect refers to the biblical story of the forbidden-fruit in paradise that became too tempting and the consumption of which had momentous consequences.…”

Promoting Fruit and Vegetable Consumption for Childhood Obesity Prevention

“…Considering the source-related effects, studies suggest that majority cues [ 98 ] and what a media character represents are crucial. For instance, peer-led marketing, as opposed to influencer- or celebrity-led marketing, is suggested to be a stronger predictor of consumers’ eating behavior [ 99 ] and decisions to consume healthier foods [ 96 ].…”