Lie your way to better health

A little dishonesty can be good for your health. And no, I'm not talking about altering the bathroom scale to give more favorable readings.

Would you lie to your family to get them to eat healthier foods?

It just might work, shows a study led by famed false-memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus, PhD, distinguished professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Irvine.

In two experiments involving 231 college students, Loftus and colleagues were able to convince half the participants that, as children, they had loved asparagus -- even though these students at first said they were pretty sure this was not true.

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The Loftus experiments were based on an elaborate ruse. Study participants were told that they were part of a study of food preferences and personality. They then completed a 24-item food-history questionnaire in which they reported how certain they were that they had various food experiences.

One of the items was "Loved asparagus the first time you tried it." Only those who were relatively confident this didn't happen were included in the study analysis. Participants were also given questionnaires in which they rated their desire to eat 32 different dishes (including asparagus), how likely they would be to order these dishes from a mock restaurant menu if they were out for a special dinner, and how much they would pay for foods in a grocery store. In a second, similar experiment, participants also rated how appetizing or disgusting they found certain photographs of foods (including a bunch of asparagus).

A week later, participants came back for "feedback" on their responses. They were told that a sophisticated computer program had generated an analysis of their early childhood food experiences. Half of the participants were told -- falsely -- that as children they loved to eat cooked asparagus.

Participants were then questioned about the settings and experiences they remembered regarding these childhood food experiences. In each of the two experiments, about half of the students falsely believed or falsely remembered they had loved asparagus as children.

"We got a number of people to buy into this suggestion and to elaborate on it, and those people now want to eat asparagus more," Loftus says.

I think you'd have to employ more advanced brainwashing techniques to get me to believe that I ever liked asparagus, but then I tried it again as an adult and confirmed my own earlier research, so perhaps I'd be the wrong subject. As it happens, there are a number of foods that I refused to eat as a kid that I tried again later in life and came to like - beans, bell peppers, and mustard are three that come to mind - so I do believe it's possible to change opinions, even if one must resort to deception. But with some foods - asparagus is up there, but broccoli is far and away Number One on this list - that just ain't gonna work. I hate 'em, I know I hate 'em, and you can't tell me otherwise.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 10, 2008 to Food, glorious food