If It's useful and you know it, do you eat? Preschoolers refrain from instrumental food

• Autores: Michal Maimaran, Ayelet Fishbach
• Localización: Journal of Consumer Research, ISSN-e 1537-5277, Vol. 41, Nº. 3, 2014, págs. 642-655
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Marketers, educators, and caregivers often refer to instrumental benefits to convince preschoolers to eat (e.g., �This food will make you strong�). We propose that preschoolers infer that if food is instrumental to achieve a goal, it is less tasty, and therefore they consume less of it. Accordingly, we find that preschoolers (3�5.5 years old) rated crackers as less tasty and consumed fewer of them when the crackers were presented as instrumental to achieving a health goal (studies 1�2). In addition, preschoolers consumed fewer carrots and crackers when these were presented as instrumental to knowing how to read (study 3) and to count (studies 4�5). This research supports an inference account for the negative impact of certain persuasive messages on consumption: preschoolers who are exposed to one association (e.g., between eating carrots and intellectual performance) infer another association (e.g., between carrots and taste) must be weaker.