Feelings of ease and attitudes toward healthy foods

The successful impact of health campaigns often depends on the extent to which interventions are effective in changing attitudes. The goal of the present research was to examine to what extent the ease adolescents experience in generating thoughts can infl uence persuasion in the domain of a health-...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: Requero Bravo, Blanca, Cancela, Ana, Santos, David, Díaz, Darío, Briñol Turnes, Pablo Antonio
Format: article
Publication Date:2015
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repository:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/670998
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/670998
https://dx.doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2014.287
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Attitude change
Meta-cognition
Fluency
Ease
Persuasion
Health
Diet
Cambio de actitud
Metacognición
Fluidez
Facilidad
Persuasión
Salud
Dieta
Psicología
Description
Summary:The successful impact of health campaigns often depends on the extent to which interventions are effective in changing attitudes. The goal of the present research was to examine to what extent the ease adolescents experience in generating thoughts can infl uence persuasion in the domain of a health-relevant topic. Method: Participants were asked to generate either positive or negative thoughts about the Mediterranean diet. The spontaneous feeling of ease with which participants generated those thoughts was assessed for each participant. The impact of these two independent variables on attitudes toward the Mediterranean diet was examined. Results: Participants who reported relatively higher (vs. lower) subjective ease experiences in the thought-listing task showed a greater effect of thought direction on attitudes toward the diet. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the importance of considering not only the thoughts people have with regard to health but also the subjective experiences and metacognitive feelings associated with those thoughts