On any given day, about one in three – one in three American adults eat fast food. There are some problems associated with this.
Much research suggests fast food is not good for youAnd it is been linked to the obesity epidemic affecting millions in the US, among a multitude of other health-related topics.
But according to new research, the main reason people avoid fast food is not simply because it is unhealthy. Rather, they are motivated by feelings of guilt.
in a new study Surveying more than 300 respondents via an online questionnaire, the researchers sought to identify the key factors that differentiated people who identified as regular fast food eaters or non-regular eaters.
“One gap in the research is that the reasons for not eating fast food [are] relatively unknown aside from anecdotal assumptions that fast food’s poor nutritional quality may discourage fast food consumption,” a team led by first author and hospitality management researcher Kiwon Lee of Kent State University in Ohio explain on paper.
While nutritional quality or lack thereof is certainly a factor on people’s minds when they think of fast food, it’s just one of many potential things we weigh when looking for our next meal.
In the survey, respondents were asked to indicate the importance they placed on a variety of items related to fast food, including functional values (eg, convenience, taste, familiarity) and emotional values (eg, ., pleasure), among several other questions, probing participants on everything from food poisoning risks to animal welfare concerns and the environmental impacts of fast food production.
Using a variety of statistical techniques to balance and interpret the raw data, the researchers found two key discriminators in particular that identified non-regular fast food eaters.
The first factor was their reported tendency to consume fast food in “accidental situations” something out of their control, such as times of time pressure, when traveling, running out of food at home, or in times of stress. (By contrast, people who voluntarily opt to eat fast food regularly probably don’t “accidentally” do so as much.)
But it is the second discriminatory factor for non-regular fast food eaters that most clearly explains why they don’t eat fast food the rest of the time. According to the analysis, what makes them abstain the most is…guilt.
“Non-regular consumers may be characterized by a tendency to feel guilty about eating fast food and feel fulfilled when not eating fast food,” researchers explain.
“Interestingly, poor health, which is often discussed as a major problem with fast food and anecdotally assumed to be one of the main reasons for avoiding fast food, did not play a role in the discrimination of regular consumers and non-consumers.” regular”.
This result suggests that knowledge of poor nutritional quality is not enough to influence a person’s fast food consumption habits, something that has been found in previous research too.
“Perceived unhealthiness of fast food can be assumed to lead to avoidance only when the perception is accompanied by other reasons to stop eating fast food, such as guilt, as our results suggest.” the team writes.
The researchers acknowledge that the sample size of their study was relatively small and therefore suggest caution should be exercised when generalizing their results. Also, to keep their initial survey manageable, they only asked people about burgers and fries, although the research design can now be expanded to larger data sets and more fast food groups.
Importantly, the team says obesity prevention programs could gain ground by focusing their messages around ‘guilty appeal’ – seeking to steer consumers away from fast food with persuasive techniques designed to emphasize the guilt they will feel if they eat it.
This could be helpful, but the findings go both ways.
In addition to identifying the discriminatory factors that typify non-regular eaters, the researchers also extracted some of the key factors that differentiate regular fast-food eaters: in particular, convenience and taste, but also concerns about potential food safety. fast food (which probably weighs more heavily on your mind if you’re the type of person who eats a lot).
Those insights, the team says, could soon be aimed at all of us in the form of newly optimized ad campaigns, whether we’re accidental customers or enthusiastic regulars.
The findings are reported in Food quality and preference.
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