Journal article
Sources of bias in peoples' social-comparative estimates of food consumption
Journal of experimental psychology. Applied, Vol.22(2), pp.173-183
06/2016
DOI: 10.1037/xap0000081
PMID: 27054551
Abstract
Understanding how healthfully people think they eat compared to others has implications for their motivation to engage in dietary change and the adoption of health recommendations. Our goal was to investigate the scope, sources, and measurements of bias in comparative food consumption beliefs. Across 4 experiments, participants made direct comparisons of how their consumption compared to their peers' consumption and/or estimated their personal consumption of various foods/nutrients and the consumption by peers, allowing the measurement of indirect comparisons. Critically, the healthiness and commonness of the foods varied. When the commonness and healthiness of foods both varied, indirect comparative estimates were more affected by the healthiness of the food, suggesting a role for self-serving motivations, while direct comparisons were more affected by the commonness of the food, suggesting egocentrism as a nonmotivated source of comparative bias. When commonness did not vary, the healthiness of the foods impacted both direct and indirect comparisons, with a greater influence on indirect comparisons. These results suggest that both motivated and nonmotivated sources of bias should be taken into account when creating interventions aimed at improving eating habits and highlights the need for researchers to be sensitive to how they measure perceptions of comparative eating habits. (PsycINFO Database Record
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Sources of bias in peoples' social-comparative estimates of food consumption
- Creators
- Aaron M Scherer - Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine, University of MichiganKathryn Bruchmann - Department of Psychology, Santa Clara UniversityPaul D Windschitl - Department of Psychology, University of IowaJason P Rose - Department of Psychology, University of ToledoAndrew R Smith - Appalachian State UniversityBryan Koestner - Carver College of Medicine, University of IowaLinda Snetselaar - Department of Epidemiology, University of IowaJerry Suls - Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of experimental psychology. Applied, Vol.22(2), pp.173-183
- Publisher
- United States
- DOI
- 10.1037/xap0000081
- PMID
- 27054551
- ISSN
- 1076-898X
- eISSN
- 1939-2192
- Grant note
- DP2 OD007483 / NIH HHS P30 CA086862 / NCI NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/2016
- Academic Unit
- Stead Family Department of Pediatrics; Epidemiology; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center; General Internal Medicine; Internal Medicine; Hospital Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9983995050002771
Metrics
14 Record Views