The following study taught teens that eating more healthy vegetables was an act of freedom and rebellion against the corporate propaganda and greed of a junk food industry that manipulated them into spending more money on food that makes them (and others) sick and addicted. The teens responded by making better choices and eating healthier food.
From the article
Broccoli v. French fries: Appealing to teens’ impulse to rebel can curb unhealthy eating
“It’s no secret that the adolescent years can be challenging: young teens have a heightened sensitivity to perceived injustice and react against authority. And their newfound social conscience and desire for autonomy can motivate many of their decisions – even food choices.
A new study, “Harnessing Adolescent Values to Motivate Healthier Eating,” by Christopher J. Bryan of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and David Yeager of the University of Texas, finds that by appealing to widely-held adolescent values, it’s possible to reduce unhealthy eating habits and motivate better food choices among adolescents.
The paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Our goal here was to portray healthy eating as a way to take a stand against injustice – to stand up for vulnerable people who lack the ability to protect themselves.”
To capture the motivating power of these values, researchers worked with groups of eighth graders to reshape their perception of healthy eating as an act of independence that serves the purpose of social justice.
“We took a two-pronged approach to this,” Bryan says. “First, our healthy eating message was framed as an exposé of manipulative food industry marketing practices that influence and deceive adolescents and others into eating larger quantities of unhealthy foods.”
The researchers also described journalistic accounts of such industry practices as engineering processed foods to maximize addictiveness and to encourage overconsumption, as well as using deceptive labeling to make unhealthy products appear healthy.”
read more at the full original article linked above
and wonder what perceptions you can twist around for your teenage children to change their views on smoking, drinking, peer pressure, watching TV, etc
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