Experimental research on non-idealized models: A systematic literature review.

Current literature on non-idealized models seems to offer mixed evidence on whether such models generate a positive body image and increase advertising effectiveness. To closely investigate this claim, we conducted a systematic review to summarize the empirical findings on the effects of non-idealized models on body image, well-being, and advertising outcomes among men and women. To contextualize these results, we also synthesized (1) the conceptualization of a non-idealized body size (i.e., labelling and operationalization), (2) the message accompanying the model (i.e., medium type and marketing intent), and (3) individual traits of participants tested as potential moderators. Three databases in different disciplines (i.e., ProQuest Psychology, Communication and Mass Media Complete, and Web of Science) were searched, and 86 unique studies were included in the review. While most studies found positive or null effects of non-idealized models on body image, well-being, and advertising outcomes, a small number of studies obtained negative results. These inconsistent findings could be explained by the large variety of labels and unclear operationalizations identified within our review. The conclusions of this review call for a clearer definition and measurement of non-idealized models.

Intercultural insights on the impact of different non-idealized models on men's body image and advertising perceptions.

This experiment with 363 Irish and Flemish men aged 19 to 30 years (M = 23.56, SD = 2.36) investigated exposure to different male model ads (i.e. muscular, slim, plus-size, overall diversity, and no models) on well-being (i.e. body image, low body fat and muscularity attitudes, self-objectification, and self-esteem) and advertising outcomes (i.e. ad attitudes, brand attitudes, and purchase intent). Moderation effects of country and masculinity (i.e. dominance, winning) were investigated. The diversity condition generated more positive effects for low body fat attitudes than the muscular, slim, and no model conditions. Yet, no differences appeared for this outcome between the diversity and plus-size condition. No effects for the other well-being and advertising variables were found. Moderation analyses revealed higher purchase intent in the slim condition for men high in dominance. No effects were found for country and winning. Findings suggest that non-idealized models have protective effects for some men.

Persuasive packaging? The impact of packaging color and claims on young consumers' perceptions of product healthiness, sustainability and tastiness.

Following the increasing importance of healthiness and sustainability for many consumers, manufacturers increasingly try to give products a healthier or eco-friendlier image, for instance through packaging design. We conducted two experiments to investigate how visual (i.e., colors) and textual (i.e., claims) packaging elements shape perceptions of product healthiness, sustainability and tastiness. Additionally, the studies investigated whether these packaging elements impact the likelihood that these products are selected in a choice task. Study 1 (N = 202) had a mixed design, with packaging color (warm versus cool) and a nutrition claim (present versus absent) as within-subjects manipulations. Young consumers chose between four beverages, and subsequently evaluated these beverages. Study 2 (N = 211) had a similar design and procedure, but focused on the impact of an ecological claim on the evaluation of snacks. In line with our hypotheses, cool packaging colors (i.e., green and blue) increased perceptions that food and drinks were healthy and sustainable. However, in Study 1, cool packaging colors also resulted in lower tastiness expectations, and a lower likelihood that the product was selected. We also found that a simple nutrition/ecological claim made products seem overall healthier and more sustainable. Additionally, contrary to many previous studies, we did not find that these claims affected taste expectations. Our studies highlight the importance of package design as a factor that can influence perceptions of food and drink products.

Food for teens: how social media is associated with adolescent eating outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between exposure to social media food messages and self-reported adolescent eating outcomes (including food intake, perceived norms and food literacy). DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey was used to assess reported exposure to core and non-core food messages (including marketing messages) on social media, as well as reported food intake, perceived norms, food literacy, attitudes, self-regulation, among others. SETTING: 18 secondary schools across Flanders, Belgium. PARTICIPANTS: 1002 adolescents 11-19 years of age. RESULTS: Self-reported exposure to food marketing and overall food messages on social media was positively associated with eating attitudes, behaviours, perceived norms and food literacy among adolescents. Interestingly, the relationship between food exposure and intake was shaped differently depending on food type; descriptive norms mediated the positive relationship between non-core food social media exposure and non-core food intake (e.g. indirect effect estimate on self-reported sweets consumption is 0·005, se 0·002, P < 0·01), while food literacy mediated the positive relationship between core food social media exposure and core food intake (e.g. indirect effect estimate on self-reported vegetable consumption is 0·01, se 0·003, P < 0·000). CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the significance of social media in relation to adolescent eating. There is an opportunity for health professionals to use social media in the promotion of core food among adolescents. We call for relevant policy actions to regulate the marketing of non-core food to adolescents on social media.

"Everywhere You Look, You'll Find Food": Emerging Adult Perspectives Toward the Food Media Landscape.

This study explores what emerging adults value in food media, i.e. food-focused content and personae in media. Emerging adults (18-25) are an important target group for food media as they transition toward nutritional independence and consume media substantially. Seven semi-structured focus groups were conducted with thirty-seven Belgian participants. Thematic analysis revealed three themes (hedonism, ability, information) grouping nine subthemes (entertainment, sensory appeal, convenience, familiarity, cost, autonomy, education, health and fitness, and innovation) characterizing emerging adults' food media experiences. Incidental exposure and interpersonal influences also mark their food media consumption. This demonstrates food media's interwovenness in emerging adults' media habits. Further research should consider these themes and complexities, including their potential impact toward food-related habits and media use.

Framing real beauty: A framing approach to the effects of beauty advertisements on body image and advertising effectiveness.

Current literature is inconsistent about the effects of idealized (i.e., thin) vs. non-idealized (i.e., average or plus-size) models on young women's well-being. This inconsistency may be explained by different frames (i.e., passive body, active body, and subject) surrounding beauty ad models. The current experimental study among 568 women aged 18-30 years (M = 21.45, SD = 1.84) tested the effects of differently framed ads featuring idealized vs. non-idealized models on well-being and ad effectiveness while taking into account the mediating role of cognitive schemas and moderating role of thin-ideal internalization. Results showed that a passive body frame generated more appearance schemas compared to a subject frame. The effects of framing on body functionality schemas operated differently for idealized vs. non-idealized models. The passive body frame also induced inferior ad outcomes (i.e., lower attitudes to the advertisement and brand and lower purchase intent) compared to an active body frame. No other main framing effects nor moderating effects of thin-ideal internalization were found. These results for advertising outcomes can encourage beauty brands to stop using typical objectifying ads.

That's My Cue to Eat: A Systematic Review of the Persuasiveness of Front-of-Pack Cues on Food Packages for Children vs. Adults.

Packaging is increasingly recognized as an essential component of any marketing strategy. Visual and informational front-of-pack cues constitute salient elements of the environment that may influence what and how much someone eats. Considering their overwhelming presence on packaging of non-core foods, front-of-pack cues may contribute to the growing rates of overweight and obesity in children and adults. We conducted a systematic review to summarize the evidence concerning the impact of front-of-pack cues on choices and eating behaviors. Four electronic databases were searched for experimental studies (2009-present). This resulted in the inclusion of 57 studies (in 43 articles). We identified studies on children (3-12 years) and adults (≥ 18 years), but no studies on adolescents (12-18 years). The results suggest that children and adults are susceptible to packaging cues, with most evidence supporting the impact of visual cues. More specifically, children more often choose products with a licensed endorser and eat more from packages portraying the product with an exaggerated portion size. Adults' eating behaviors are influenced by a range of other visual cues, mainly, package size and shape, and less so by informational cues such as labels.

The influence of front-of-pack portion size images on children's serving and intake of cereal.

BACKGROUND: Consumption of large portions of energy-dense foods promotes weight gain in children. Breakfast cereal boxes often show portions much larger than the recommended serving size. OBJECTIVE: This experimental study investigated whether front-of-package portion size depictions influence children's self-served portions and consumption. METHODS: In a between-subjects design, 41 children aged 7-11 years (M= 9.0 ± 1.5y) served themselves breakfast cereal from a box, the front of which depicted either a recommended serving size of cereal (30g) or a larger, more typical front-of-pack portion (90g). Cereal served and consumed and total caloric intake (including milk) was recorded. Height and weight, demographic information and measures of children's food responsiveness and enjoyment of food were collected. RESULTS: MANOVA revealed that children exposed to the larger portion size served themselves (+7g, 37%) and consumed (+6g, 63%) significantly more cereal than those exposed to the smaller portion. Despite this, overall caloric intake (milk included) did not differ between conditions, and no other measured variables (hunger, BMI) significantly affected the outcomes. CONCLUSION: This study provides novel evidence of the influence portion-size depictions on food packaging have on children's eating behaviour. This offers possible avenues for intervention and policy change; however, more research is needed.

What Do Adolescents See on Social Media? A Diary Study of Food Marketing Images on Social Media.

Food marketing influences eating preferences and choices, especially among adolescents, contributing to the rise of overweight, obesity, and other chronic health disorders. Recent social media advancements have provided food marketers with platforms to reach out to many in more personal and authentic ways as compared to classical media advertising. Such personalized and borderless social media platforms allow marketers to easily use owned, paid, and earned (word-of -mouth) marketing strategies, including paid and non-paid influencers to reach younger target audiences. This study therefore aims to explore food messages adolescents (12-18 years old) encounter on social media, and assess these messages for their sources, the presence of core and non-core food, and the marketing strategies employed. To attain an in-depth understanding of the food messages that adolescents are continuously exposed to, we carried out a diary study with 21 Flemish adolescents who took screenshots of food images they encountered on their social media platforms for the duration of one week. A quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 611 images revealed that adolescents are mostly exposed to messages of non-core (67% of images) and branded (49% of images) food, often (49% of images) presented in association with a social context such as hanging around with friends, eating at restaurants and celebrating with food. Adolescents often encounter branded food images through peers and social media influencers, the majority of which are part of earned (49% of branded images) or paid (40% of branded images) media food marketing. This research provides an in-depth understanding of the social media messages that adolescents encounter on a daily basis and sheds light on food norms typically communicated on social media by marketers, peers, and influencers. Study findings highlight prominent social media food messages that should be tested for their persuasiveness, providing insights for future research that aims to assess the effects of social media food marketing on adolescents. Based on the study findings, we call for relevant policy actions that address current social media marketing strategies targeted at adolescents.

Media food marketing and eating outcomes among pre-adolescents and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The media marketing's effect on child and adult eating has been extensively researched, yet, little is known about its effect on adolescents. The aim of this review is to synthesize available research on the relation between media food marketing and eating-related cognitions, attitudes, and behaviors among pre-adolescents (8-11) and adolescents (12-19). We systematically screened and retrieved 9324 articles, of which 28 were included in the review-analysis and 19 in the meta-analysis. Robust variance estimation with random effect weights indicated a positive small standard effect size (d = 0.26, P < .001) of media food marketing on all unhealthy eating outcomes, and a subgroup analysis revealed a small effect size (d = 0.26, P < .001) on unhealthy eating behaviors specifically. Another subgroup analysis among adolescents revealed an effect of marketing (d = 0.22, P < .05) on unhealthy eating outcomes. This review demonstrates the significance of media marketing on eating in pre-adolescents and adolescents, and highlights limitations in the food marketing and adolescent eating literature specific to eating outcomes and marketing media studied and research designs utilized. We call for properly designed food marketing research exploring digital media's effect on eating attitudes and cognitions, especially among older adolescents.

Child-targeted on-pack communications in Belgian supermarkets: associations with nutritional value and type of brand.

Persuasive on-pack marketing strategies, such as colourful images and games, affect children's preferences and requests. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of these child-directed (i.e. aimed at children) strategies on food packages at a Belgian retailer. Although previous research already demonstrated the frequency of most of these techniques directed at children, this paper extends to food pricing and facing strategies (i.e. the number of items from the same product aligned next to each other in the supermarket shelves) which were unstudied till now. Moreover, the association between the use of these strategies, the products' (un)healthiness and their type of brand (national vs. private) is investigated. The content analysis found that 372 food products contained one or more child-directed marketing strategies on-pack, all these communications were coded; the products could be classified in 15 food categories. On average, 3.9 (Min = 1; Max = 8) food promotion techniques were used per package. Unhealthiness of products was rated according to Food Standards Agency (FSA) Nutrient Profile UK. We found that 89.2% of all products with child-directed strategies were considered to be unhealthy. The presence of marketing strategies was associated with higher product unhealthiness, but did not differ much between types of brand. Overall, these findings suggest that (unhealthy) foods aimed at children typically feature many on-pack persuasive communications, which implies that policy makers should (continue to) monitor this. These findings highlight the need for further research to investigate the impact of on-pack communications on children's consumption.

Consequences of relying on statistical significance: Some illustrations.

BACKGROUND: Despite regular criticisms of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST), a focus on testing persists, sometimes in the belief to get published and sometimes encouraged by journal reviewers. This paper aims to demonstrate known key limitations of NHST using simple nontechnical illustrations. DESIGN: The first illustration is based on simulated data of 20 000 studies that compare two groups for an outcome event. The true effect size (difference in event rates) and sample size (20-100 per group) were varied. The second illustration used real data from a meta-analysis on alpha-blockers for the treatment of ureteric stones. RESULTS: The simulations demonstrated the large between-study variability in P-values (range between <.0001 and 1 for most simulation conditions). A focus on statistically significant effects (P < .05), notably in small to moderate samples, led to strongly overestimated effect sizes (up to 240%) and many false-positive conclusions, that is statistically significant effects that were, in fact, true null effects. Effect sizes also exerted strong between-study variability, but confidence intervals accounted for this: the interval width decreased with larger sample size, and the percentage of intervals that contained the true effect size was accurate across simulation conditions. Reducing alpha level, as recently suggested, reduced false-positive conclusions but strongly increased the overestimation of significant effects (up to 320%). CONCLUSIONS: Researchers and journals should abandon statistical significance as a pivotal element in most scientific publications. Confidence intervals around effect sizes are more informative, but should not merely be reported to comply with journal requirements.

Acting One's Age in Physical Exercise: Do Perceived Age Norms Explain Autonomous Motivation Among Older Adults?

BACKGROUND: The social identity approach proposes that the more older adults identify with the social group of "older adults," the more they will conform to what they perceive as being normative exercising for their group. However, so far, it remains unclear why older adults adhere to these norms. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated whether perceived exercise norms are associated with higher levels of autonomous motivation according to the self-determination theory and actual exercise participation. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey, either by regular mail or online, was conducted among 409 older adults in Flanders (Belgium). RESULTS: Our analyses revealed that older adults who perceived more positive older adult norms for exercising were more autonomously motivated to exercise. In explaining 24% of their exercise motivation, older adults' perceptions of the exercise norms for older adults predicted 6% of their exercise participation. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that social identity approach and self-determination theory can be meaningfully integrated.

Seeing is doing. The implicit effect of TV cooking shows on children's use of ingredients.

Prior research has established that TV viewing and food marketing influence children's eating behavior. However, the potential impact of popular TV cooking shows has received far less attention. TV cooking shows may equally affect children's food selection and consumption by distributing both food cues and portion-size cues. In an experimental study, elementary school children were randomly exposed to a cooking show, that either did or did not display a portion-size cue, or a non-food TV show. Results showed that children used significantly more sugar on their pancakes, and consumed significantly more of the pancakes after watching a TV cooking show compared to a non-food TV show. However, observing a portion-size cue in a TV cooking show only influenced sugar selection in older children (5th grade), but not in younger children (1st grade). The findings suggest that food cues in TV cooking shows stimulate consumption by inducing food cravings in children. Actual portion-size cues only appeared to affect older children's food selection.

Impact of training on pharmacists' counseling of patients starting antidepressant therapy.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the impact of a one-day depression-related training program on pharmacists' counseling of unannounced "mystery shoppers" (MS) starting antidepressant therapy. METHODS: Clustered RCT pharmacies; intervention group pharmacists received communication skills training related to depression (n=21); control pharmacists did not (n=19). Eight months after training, the 40 community pharmacies were visited by MS with a first prescription for antidepressants. The pharmacy interactions were recorded and analyzed using the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). Mann-Whitney U tests were used to evaluate the impact of training on pharmacy interactions and MS evaluations of the pharmacists' skills and attitudes. RESULTS: Interactions of intervention group pharmacists were significantly longer and consisted of more education and counseling statements about lifestyle and psychosocial concerns. Intervention group pharmacists asked more questions about medical condition and therapeutic regimen, as well as socioemotional concerns. MS gave more socioemotional information to intervention group pharmacists and were more positive in their assessment of these pharmacists' skills and attitudes (p values<0.05). CONCLUSION: Pharmacist training in depression care can positively affect the quality of patient care. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Postgraduate training in depression related services is a worthwhile approach to improve the quality of pharmaceutical care.

Judges in judo conform to the referee because of the reactive feedback system.

This experiment tested whether the conformism observed among panels of judges in aesthetic sports also occurs among judges in judo. Similar to aesthetic sports, judo judging relies upon a form of open feedback. However, in judo, this system is reactive (i.e. two judges have to publicly 'correct' the score given by the higher-status referee), whereas it is active in aesthetic sports (i.e. judges with equal status report their score simultaneously and can use the feedback about the scores of their colleagues for evaluating later performances). In order to test whether such reactive open-feedback system leads to conformism among judges in judo, we designed an experiment in which this feedback was manipulated. Participants were 20 certified Flemish judges, who had to score two sets of 11 ambiguous video sequences that are used during formation and training of judo judges: one set with feedback about the referee's score and one set without feedback. The results revealed that when participants knew the referee's score, their scores were significantly more in line with this score than when they did not know this score. More specifically, for both sets of sequences at least 10% less deviations from the referee were observed when participants were given feedback about the score of the referee. These results suggest that preventable conformism can occur in typical judo judging, that is with reactive open feedback.

A depression training session with consumer educators to reduce stigmatizing views and improve pharmacists' depression care attitudes and practices.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the impact of a depression training day for pharmacists that included a 75-minute session with a consumer educator. DESIGN: The training day included interactive lectures on depression; the effects and side effects of and indications for the use of antidepressants; adherence issues; non-drug treatment options for depression; and basic skills in communication. Pharmacists also participated in a session with a consumer educator and in counseling exercises that included role playing. ASSESSMENT: The study used a randomized, clustered, comparative design to measure pharmacists' stigma, attitudes, and current practice related to the provision of pharmaceutical care to people with depression. Mean scores for depression-care practice after the training session were significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group. Analysis of the changes between baseline and postintervention measures in both the control and intervention groups confirmed a significant difference in the change in both social distance and practice but no significant difference in the change in attitude between the 2 groups of pharmacists. CONCLUSION: A continuing-education depression training day for pharmacists that involve consumer educators may improve the care delivered in the community pharmacy to people with depression.