Food cues undermine effects of health warnings

23 January 2018

Many (government) organisations encourage healthy eating habits by providing information on healthy diets. Nevertheless, when people encounter stimuli that they have learned to associate with certain snacks, they tend to choose those products, even when they know these are unhealthy. This is the finding of research by psychologists from the University of Amsterdam (UvA). They investigated the effects of health warnings on food choices in the presence or absence of food-associated stimuli. This includes every kind of stimuli associated with food, including adverts that trigger thoughts of a tasty snack or the sight or smell of food which leads to craving. An article about the research was published in Appetite (Press Release UvA, 2 January 2018).
Click here for the press release.
Click here for the published article (941 kB).

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