Healthy and unhealthy social norms and food selection. Findings from a field-experiment

Mollen, Saar; Rimal, Rajiv N.; Ruiter, Robert A. C.; Kok, Gerjo

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2013.01.020

Cited by 164 publications

(148 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

141

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Lally et al (55) found that perceptions of peers' attitudes towards consuming different food types did not predict intake, whereas perceptions of what peers were eating were predictive. Mollen et al (62) too found no evidence that an injunctive norm increased healthier food intake and we have also found that a message about approval of fruit and vegetable consumption did not affect eating behaviour (66) .…”

Section: Effect Of Norm Typesmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…In study 1, the high-energy-choice norm resulted in 28 % more of participants selected the higher-energy option and in study 2 the increase was 35 % (61) . Mollen et al (62) have also shown that norms guide food choices in a field experiment. Participants were exposed to social-norm messages in a food court.…”

Section: Manipulating Context-specific Perceived Eating Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Social influences on eating: implications for nutritional interventions

2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We review recent research on the effect of social context on food intake and food choice and assess the implications for nutritional interventions. We focus on studies of modelling of eating behaviour and the impact of perceived eating norms on the amounts and types of food that individuals eat. We suggest that social context influences eating via multiple mechanisms, including identity signalling and self-presentation concerns. However, building on existing theoretical models, we propose that social factors may be particularly influential on nutrition because following the behaviour of others is adaptive and social norms inform individuals about behaviours that are likely to be optimal ('if everyone else is doing it, I probably should be'). Guided by understanding of the potential underlying mechanisms, we discuss how social norms might be used to promote healthier nutrition.

show abstract

Section: Effect Of Norm Typesmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Manipulating Context-specific Perceived Eating Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social influences on eating: implications for nutritional interventions

2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is especially likely to happen when the motivation, ability, or opportunity to process information is low, leading to superficial mental processing. For example, studies found an increase in smoking as a result of anti-smoking campaigns [41][42][43] and an increase of junk food consumption after anti-junk-food messages [44,45]. Maybe superficially perceiving cues of cigarettes or junk food without consciously processing the content of the message can work as a mental prime that unconsciously encourages people to smoke or eat unhealthily.…”

Section: Concerns About the Application Of Social Norm Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Social Norms Intervention Going Wrong: Boomerang Effects from Descriptive Norms Information

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:A large body of research supports the idea of social norms communication promoting pro-social and pro-environmental behaviour. This paper investigates social norms communication in the field. Signs prompting consumers about sustainable seafood labels and informing them about other consumers' sustainable choices were displayed in supermarkets in Norway and Germany. Seafood sales (sustainably labelled versus unlabelled products) were observed before, during, and after the implementation of the signs. The expected change towards more sustainable choices was generally not found. In Norway, the choice of sustainable seafood increased in the prompt-only condition, but the effect was neutralised when social norms information was added. In Germany, social norm messages lead to a decline in sustainable choices compared to baseline, a boomerang effect. Overall, an increase in the purchase of seafood (both sustainably labelled and unlabelled) was noted during the intervention. A second study was carried out to further explore the finding that consumers were mainly primed with "seafood" as a food group. In a laboratory setting, participants were confronted with stereotypical food pictures, combined with short sentences encouraging different consumption patterns. Subsequently, they were asked to choose food products in a virtual shop. Confirming the findings of Study 1, participants chose more of the groceries belonging to the food group they were primed with. These studies suggest that social norms interventions-recently often perceived as "the Holy Grail" for behaviour change-are not as universally applicable as suggested in the literature. According to this study, even descriptive norm messages can produce boomerang effects.

show abstract

“…Examples of such studies range from recent experiments showing that healthy social norms in health campaigns (e.g., many people in a health ad displaying healthy conduct) can encourage the uptake of healthy behaviors [32][33][34] to classic studies by Asch [35] demonstrating the powerful impact of other people on participants' willingness to engage in similar behaviors. In addition, there are indications that the social conformity effects found by Asch [35] are a function of group size [36].…”

Section: Social Content Of Alcoholpostsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Drinking on Social Media: Content Analysis of the Social Aspects of Alcohol-Related Posts on Facebook and Instagram (Preprint)

Hendriks¹,

Putte²,

Gebhardt³

et al. 2017

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Alcohol is often consumed in social contexts. An emerging social context in which alcohol is becoming increasingly apparent is social media. Young people increasingly display alcohol-related posts ("alcoholposts") on social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Objective: Considering the importance of social aspects for both alcohol consumption as well as social media use, the current study investigated (1) the social content of alcoholposts (i.e., the evaluative social context and presence of people) and (2) social processes (i.e., the posting of and reactions to posts) involved with alcoholposts on social networking sites. Methods: An extensive content analysis of Facebook and Instagram-profiles (N = 192) was conducted. Results: It was shown that the alcoholposts of youth frequently depicted alcohol in a positive social context and displayed people holding drinks. In addition, alcoholposts were more often placed on participants' timelines by others (i.e., by tagging) than they were posted by participants themselves. Furthermore, it was revealed that such social posts received more likes and comments than non-social posts (e.g., in which no people were visible). Conclusions: Thus, both in terms of content as well as processes, alcoholposts on social media are social in nature, and a part of young people's everyday social lives.Interventions aiming to decrease alcoholposts should therefore focus on the broad social context of individuals in which posting about alcohol takes place. Europe and the United States showed that 35% of youth who consume alcohol had at least one binge drinking episode in the past month [5][6][7]. This high prevalence of alcohol use and the multitude of negative related consequences increase the need to gain more insight into the context in which this behavior takes place. Research has shown that alcohol is often consumed in social contexts [8]. Moreover, an emerging social context in which alcohol is becoming increasingly apparent is that of the social media. That is, young people increasingly display alcohol-related posts ("alcoholposts") on social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram [9]. The current study investigates these alcoholposts on social media, and how social these posts actually are, by conducting a content analysis of alcoholposts on Instagram and Facebook among 192 adolescents and young adults. The social context of alcoholYoung people often consume alcohol in social contexts, such as dinners and parties, and alcohol consumption is often referred to as a social activity [8,10,11]. Moreover, research has shown that alcohol consumption plays a large part in young peoples' social lives and social identity exploration [12]. Furthermore, many studies have shown that social norms are strongly related to adolescent alcohol use, especially when these norms originate from peers [2]. The importance of the social environment for alcohol consumption is also apparent from the vast amount of research demonstrating the effects of peer influence a...

show abstract

Healthy and unhealthy social norms and food selection. Findings from a field-experiment

Cited by 164 publications

References 30 publications

Social influences on eating: implications for nutritional interventions

Social influences on eating: implications for nutritional interventions

A Social Norms Intervention Going Wrong: Boomerang Effects from Descriptive Norms Information

Social Drinking on Social Media: Content Analysis of the Social Aspects of Alcohol-Related Posts on Facebook and Instagram (Preprint)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About