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Do Disadvantageous Social Contexts Influence Food Choice? Evidence From Three Laboratory Experiments.

ABSTRACT: Increasing rates of obesity have fueled interest in the factors underlying food choice. While epidemiological studies report that disadvantaged social groups exhibit a higher incidence of obesity, causal evidence for an effect of social contexts on food choice remains scarce. To further our knowledge, we experimentally investigated the effect of disadvantageous social context on food choice in healthy, non-dieting participants. We used three established experimental methods to generate social contexts of different valence in controlled laboratory settings: (i) receiving varying amounts of money in a Dictator Game (DG; n = 40), (ii) being included or excluded in a Cyberball Game (CBG; n = 35), and (iii) performing well, average, or poorly in a response time ranking task (RTR; n = 81). Following exposure to a particular social context, participants made pairwise choices between food items that involved a conflict between perceived taste and health attributes. In line with previous research, stronger dispositional self-control (assessed via a questionnaire) was associated with healthier food choices. As expected, being treated unfairly in the DG, being excluded in the CBG, and performing poorly in the RTR led to negative emotions. However, we did not find an effect of the induced social context on food choice in any of the experiments, even when taking into account individual differences in participants' responses to the social context. Our results suggest that-at least in controlled laboratory environments-the influence of disadvantageous social contexts on food choice is limited.

SUBMITTER: Rramani Q

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7677191 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Do Disadvantageous Social Contexts Influence Food Choice? Evidence From Three Laboratory Experiments.

Rramani Qëndresa Q Gerhardt Holger H Grote Xenia X Zhao Weihua W Schultz Johannes J Weber Bernd B

Frontiers in psychology 20201106

Increasing rates of obesity have fueled interest in the factors underlying food choice. While epidemiological studies report that disadvantaged social groups exhibit a higher incidence of obesity, causal evidence for an effect of social contexts on food choice remains scarce. To further our knowledge, we experimentally investigated the effect of disadvantageous social context on food choice in healthy, non-dieting participants. We used three established experimental methods to generate social co ...[more]

PMID: 33240164

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Project description:BackgroundSnack eating occasions contribute approximately a third of children's energy intake, with approximately half of all unhealthy foods consumed during snack times. Therefore, it is critical to understand the drivers of primary food providers' snack provision. The study aims were to determine the relative importance of physical resources and social supports when primary food providers are choosing snacks to provide to their child, and to investigate how these attributes differ in social versus non-social occasions, and between subgroups of primary food providers based on socio-economic position.MethodsPrimary food providers of three to seven-year olds completed an online discrete choice experiment, by making trade-offs when completing repeated, hypothetical choice tasks on the choice of snacks to provide to their child in: 1) non-social and 2) social condition. Choice tasks included two alternatives consisting of varying attribute (i.e. factor) levels, and an opt-out option. The order of conditions shown were randomized across participants. Multinomial logit model analyses were used to determine utility weights for each attribute.ResultsTwo-hundred and twenty-five primary food providers completed the study, providing 1125 choice decisions per condition. In the non-social condition, the top three ranked attributes were type of food (utility weight 1.94, p?<?0.001), child resistance (-?1.62, p?<?0.001) and co-parent support (0.99, p?<?0.001). In the social condition, top ranking attributes were child resistance (utility weight?-?1.50, p?<?0.001), type of food (1.38, p?<?0.001) and co-parent support (1.07, p?<?0.001). In both conditions, time was not a significant influence and cost was of lowest relative importance. Subgroup analyses revealed cost was not a significant influence for families from higher socio-economic backgrounds.ConclusionsType of food, child resistance and co-parent support were of greatest relative importance in primary food providers' snack provision decision-making, regardless of social condition or socio-economic position. In designing future interventions to reduce unhealthy snacks, researchers should prioritize these influences, to better support primary food providers in changing their physical and social opportunity.Trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry no. ACTR N12618001173280.

Project description:Several disciplines, among them health, sociology, and economics, provide strong evidence that social context is important to individual choices. It is therefore surprising that relatively little research has been focused on integrating the effect of social influence into choice models, especially given the importance of such choices in healthcare. This study developed and empirically tested a choice model that accounts for social network influences in a discrete choice experiment (DCE). We focused on maternal choices for childhood vaccination in Australia, and used an econometric choice model that explicitly 1) incorporated vaccine schedule characteristics, benefits and costs, and 2) represented up to ten different identifiable key influencer types (e.g., partner, parents, friends, healthcare professionals, inter alia), allowing for the attribution of directional importance of each influencer on the gravid woman's decision to adhere to or reject childhood vaccination. Pregnant women (N = 604) aged 18 years and older recruited from an online panel completed a survey, including a DCE and questions about key influencers. A two-class ordered latent class model was conducted to analyse the DCE data, which assumes that the underlying latent driver (in our case the WHO vaccine hesitancy scale) is ordered, to give a practical interpretation of the meaning of the classes. When the choice model considered both childhood vaccination attributes and key influencers, a very high model fit was reached. The impact of key influencers on maternal choice for childhood vaccination was massive compared to the impact of childhood vaccination attributes. The marginal impact differed between key influencers. Our DCE study showed that the maternal decision for childhood vaccination was essentially almost completely socially driven, suggesting that the potential impact of social network influences can and should be considered in health-related DCEs, particular those where there are likely to be strong underlying social norms dictating decision maker behaviour.

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Do Disadvantageous Social Contexts Influence Food Choice? Evidence From Three Laboratory Experiments.

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Do Disadvantageous Social Contexts Influence Food Choice? Evidence From Three Laboratory Experiments.

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