What happens when you compare yourself to a model eating a cheeseburger? An experiment testing the impact of models prom
- PDF / 587,142 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 63 Downloads / 212 Views
(2020) 8:55
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
What happens when you compare yourself to a model eating a cheeseburger? An experiment testing the impact of models promoting calorie-dense foods on beliefs about weight maintenance, body satisfaction, and purchase intent Kerstin K. Blomquist1* , Dorothy L. Schmalz2, Sarah P. Pate1 and Alissa Willmerdinger1
Abstract Background: Ads depicting models promoting calorie-dense foods and beverages are ubiquitous and no known research has examined their effects on consumers. Drawing from social comparison theory, we hypothesized that participants who viewed ads with models (versus without models) would be more likely to rate models and less likely to rate themselves as able to consume the calorie-dense foods regularly and still maintain their weight/shape. We also hypothesized that participants who viewed ads with models (versus without models) would report more body dissatisfaction and, consistent with consumer research, a greater intention to purchase the product. Methods: Participants (N = 168) were randomly assigned to view food or beverage ads with models or without models and completed self-report measures. Results: Participants who viewed ads without models were more likely to rate themselves and most people as able to consume calorie-dense foods regularly and maintain their weight/shape and reported a greater intention to purchase the product. Consistent with our hypotheses, participants who viewed ads with models reported increased body dissatisfaction. Conclusions: Results indicate that consumers’ perceptions of their own and others’ abilities to regularly consume calorie-dense foods and maintain their weight/shape change based on whether (or not) the calorie-dense foods are promoted by a model. Our findings reveal the nuanced negative effects of calorie-dense food ads with and without models and give insight into the psychological and potential physical health consequences that food ads can have on consumers. Keywords: Food advertisement, Models, Weight maintenance, Body satisfaction
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Psychology Department, Furman University, 3300 Poinsett Highway, Greenville, SC 29613, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Data Loading...
