Feelings of ease and attitudes toward healthy foods

• Blanca Requero ^[1] ; Ana Cancela ^[1] ; David Santos ^[1] ; Darío Díaz ^[2] ; Pablo Briñol ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

     Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

     Madrid, España

     
  2. [2] Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha

     Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha

     Ciudad Real, España

     
• Localización: Psicothema, ISSN-e 1886-144X, ISSN 0214-9915, Vol. 27, Nº. 3, 2015, págs. 241-246
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.7334/psicothema2014.287
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Experiencia de facilidad y actitudes hacia la alimentación saludable
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Dialnet Métricas: 2 Citas
• Resumen
  • español

    Antecedentes: el éxito de las campañas sobre salud depende en parte del grado en que son efectivas cambiando las actitudes de las personas. El objetivo del presente estudio fue examinar en qué medida la facilidad con la que los adolescentes generan sus pensamientos puede influir sobre la persuasión en el dominio de las campañas de promoción de hábitos saludables. Método: se pidió a los participantes que generaran argumentos positivos o negativos acerca de la dieta mediterránea. Se midió la facilidad con la que los participantes percibieron generar esos pensamientos. El impacto de estas dos variables independientes fue examinado en relación con sus actitudes hacia la dieta mediterránea. Resultados: los participantes que informaron una mayor (vs. menor) facilidad subjetiva a la hora de generar los pensamientos mostraron un mayor efecto de la dirección de los mismos sobre las actitudes hacia la dieta. Conclusiones: este estudio muestra la importancia de considerar no solo los pensamientos que las personas generan en relación con la salud, sino también las experiencias meta-cognitivas asociadas a esos pensamientos.

  • English

    Background: 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 influence 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.

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