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Changing how I feel about the food: experimentally manipulated affective associations with fruits change fruit choice behaviors

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Abstract

Fewer than half of Americans meet current recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake. The behavioral affective associations model posits that feelings and emotions associated with a behavior are a proximal influence on decision making. Cross-sectional evidence supports the model and suggests that affective associations predict fruit and vegetable consumption. The purpose of this study was to test whether a causal relation exists between affective associations about fruits and future fruit consumption behavior, as measured by a snack selection task. Following a baseline assessment of cognitive and affective variables, participants’ (N = 161) affective associations about fruits were experimentally manipulated with an implicit priming paradigm. Images of fruits were repeatedly paired with positive, negative, or neutral affective stimuli. The key outcome measure was a behavioral choice task in which participants chose between fruit and a granola bar. Participants in the positive prime condition were three times more likely than those in the negative condition to select a piece of fruit over the granola bar alternative in the snack selection task. They were also twice as likely as those in the neutral condition to select fruit. There were no changes in self-reported affective associations or cognitive beliefs. These findings provide further evidence of the implicit and direct influence of affective associations on behavior, suggesting the need to both incorporate the role of affect in health decision making models, as well as the potential utility of intervention strategies targeting affective associations with health-related behaviors.

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Notes

  1. Due to small cell sizes for African American, Latin American, and Native American participants, a 3-category race variable was computed and used for hypothesis testing. Categories were: Asian/Pacific Islander (n = 68), white (n = 67), and Other (n = 26).

  2. Results from multinomial logistic regression models that included participants who did not select a snack produced equivalent results, and there were no differences by condition in likelihood of refusing a snack.

  3. Because participants’ accuracy of spacebar responses predicted snack selection, the model was also run with accuracy included as a covariate. A significant condition effect remained, with the positive condition having significantly greater odds of selecting a fruit than the negative condition (OR = 2.70, p < 0.05).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health and Health Behavior, University at Buffalo, SUNY, 329 Kimball Tower, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14214, USA

    Erin M. Walsh

  2. Department of Community Health and Health Behavior, University at Buffalo, SUNY, 314 Kimball Tower, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14214, USA

    Marc T. Kiviniemi

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  1. Erin M. Walsh
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Correspondence to Erin M. Walsh.

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Walsh, E.M., Kiviniemi, M.T. Changing how I feel about the food: experimentally manipulated affective associations with fruits change fruit choice behaviors. J Behav Med 37, 322–331 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-012-9490-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-012-9490-5

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