Reading between the menu lines: Are restaurants’ descriptions of “healthy” foods unappealing?

Turnwald, Bradley P.; Jurafsky, Dan; Conner, Alana; Crum, Alia J.

doi:10.1037/hea0000501

Cited by 49 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Here we build on this idea. Previous work has shown that healthy restaurant dishes are often described with less exciting, less indulgent language compared to unhealthy dishes (Turnwald, Jurafsky, et al, 2017). Therefore, we first investigate if the same could be true for plant-based foods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Using consumption and reward simulations to increase the appeal of plant-based foods

et al. 2020

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The production of meat is a main contributor to current dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the shift to more plant-based diets is hampered by consumers finding meatbased foods more attractive than plant-based foods. How can plant-based foods best be described to increase their appeal to consumers? Based on the grounded cognition theory of desire, we suggest that descriptions that trigger simulations, or re-experiences, of eating and enjoying a food will increase the attractiveness of a food, compared to descriptions emphasising ingredients. In Study 1, we first examined the descriptions of ready meals available in four large UK supermarkets (N = 240). We found that the labels of meat-based foods contained more references to eating simulations than vegetarian foods, and slightly more than plant-based foods, and that this varied between supermarkets. In Studies 2 and 3 (N =170, N = 166, pre-registered), we manipulated the labels of plant-based and meat-based foods to either include eating simulation words or not. We assessed the degree to which participants reported that the description made them think about eating the food (i.e., induced eating simulations), and how attractive they found the food. In Study 2, where either sensory or eating context words were added, we found no differences with control labels. In Study 3, however, where simulation-based labels included sensory, context, and hedonic words, we found that simulation-based descriptions increased eating simulations and attractiveness. Moreover, frequent meat eaters found plantbased foods less attractive, but this was attenuated when plant-based foods were described with simulation-inducing words. We suggest that language that describes rewarding eating experiences can be used to facilitate the shift toward healthy and sustainable diets.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Using consumption and reward simulations to increase the appeal of plant-based foods

et al. 2020

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“…Why are indulgent food labels important? In part this is because common cultural products (e.g., restaurant menus) fail to label healthy foods in attractive ways (Turnwald, Jurafsky, Conner, & Crum, 2017), thereby linking health to bad taste (Raghunathan, Naylor, & Hoyer, 2006). Why are growth-mind-set interventions needed?…”

Section: Vulnerability and Opportunitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Seed and Soil: Psychological Affordances in Contexts Help to Explain Where Wise Interventions Succeed or Fail

Walton¹,

Yeager

2020

Curr Dir Psychol Sci

172

181

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Psychologically “wise” interventions can cause lasting improvement in key aspects of people’s lives, but where will they work, and where will they not work? We consider the psychological affordance of the social context: Does the context in which the intervention is delivered afford the way of thinking offered by the intervention? If not, treatment effects are unlikely to persist. Change requires planting good seeds (more adaptive perspectives) in fertile soil in which those seeds can grow (a context with appropriate affordances). We illustrate the role of psychological affordances in diverse problem spaces, including recent large-scale trials of growth-mind-set and social-belonging interventions designed specifically to investigate heterogeneity across contexts. We highlight how the study of psychological affordances can advance theory about social contexts and inform debates about replicability.

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“…For example, a review of research on lay health theories found that the most prevalent definition of health is the absence of illness [2,3,26]. Regarding the causes of health, a linguistic analysis of American restaurant menus discovered that the "healthy" items were described as more depriving and boring than the standard items [27]. Other researchers note that many Americans have sedentary lifestyles because they perceive the short-term costs of exercise (e.g., time, discomfort) as outweighing its long-term benefits [28,29].…”

Section: Mindsets and Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Americans’ Health Mindsets: Content, Cultural Patterning, and Associations With Physical and Mental Health

Conner

Boles

Markus

et al. 2018

Annals of Behavioral Medicine

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Background Health mindsets are mental frameworks that help people recognize, organize, interpret, and respond to health-relevant information. Although mindsets shape health behaviors and outcomes, no study has examined the health mindsets of ethnically and socioeconomically diverse Americans. Purpose We explored the content, cultural patterning, and health correlates of diverse Americans' health mindsets. Methods Two studies surveyed approximately equal numbers of African American, Asian American, European American, and Latinx American men and women of lower and higher socioeconomic status (SES). Study 1 (N = 334) used open-ended questions to elicit participants' mindsets about the definitions, causes, and benefits of health. Study 2 (N = 320) used Study 1's results to develop a closed-ended instrument. Results In Study 1, open-ended questioning revealed six overarching mindset themes: behavioral, medical, physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. The most prevalent mindsets were psychological definitions, behavioral causes, and psychological benefits. Participants mentioned more cause themes than definition or benefit themes, and mindset theme mentions correlated with worse health. Older participants mentioned more themes than younger, women mentioned more definition themes than men, and low-SES participants mentioned more cause themes than high-SES participants. In Study 2, closed-ended scales uncovered more complex and positive health mindsets. Psychological and spiritual benefit mindsets correlated with good mental health. African Americans and women endorsed the widest array of mindsets, and the spiritual benefit mindset partially explained the superior mental health of African Americans. Conclusions Many Americans hold simplistic, illness-focused health mindsets. Cultivating more complex, benefit-focused, and culturally appropriate health mindsets could support health. Keywords Mindset • Lay theories • Health disparities • Race paradox • Mental healthIn 1948, the World Health Organization urged people to replace their notion of health as "merely the absence of disease" with "a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being" [1]. Seventy years later, studies suggest that Americans have not adopted this more complex and positive model of health [2,3]. Meanwhile, research increasingly demonstrates just how strongly people's thoughts and feelings about health affect their behaviors and outcomes. In recent years, for example, studies have shown that health mindsets shape a range of health-relevant variables, from the effects of exercise [4], to the impacts of stress [5], to the lengths of lives [6].Health mindsets are mental frameworks that help people recognize, organize, interpret, and respond to health-relevant information [7] [14], and the social and cultural construction of health and illness [15,16]. Similar to schemas and beliefs, health mindsets include cognitive, emotional, motivational, and  Alana L. Conner

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Reading between the menu lines: Are restaurants’ descriptions of “healthy” foods unappealing?

Cited by 49 publications

References 24 publications

Using consumption and reward simulations to increase the appeal of plant-based foods

Using consumption and reward simulations to increase the appeal of plant-based foods

Seed and Soil: Psychological Affordances in Contexts Help to Explain Where Wise Interventions Succeed or Fail

Americans’ Health Mindsets: Content, Cultural Patterning, and Associations With Physical and Mental Health

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