Neuroscience
Do you eat a piece of fruit on the way to work or school everyday without even thinking about it? Perhaps that is the full extent of your fruit eating? If so you're just the kind of person who won't be helped by public health information campaigns seeking to increase our fruit eating. That's according to a new study that suggests people who already eat fruit (though not enough) habitually are more likely to benefit from interventions that make fruit more easily available.
A dominant theory in health psychology is the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which states that our attitudes, our perception of social norms and our sense of control all impact on our intentions to perform a given health behaviour, and therefore the likelihood we will perform that behaviour.
Gert-Jan de Bruijn and colleagues applied this theory to the fruit eating tendencies of 521 participants, but unlike most prior research, they added in a measure of habit – that is, whether the participants said they often ate fruit automatically, without thinking about it.
Consistent with the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the Dutch psychologists found that among the participants who had either a weak or medium fruit-eating habit, their self-reported intentions to eat fruit were predictive of their fruit consumption measured five weeks later.
Crucially, however, this wasn't true for the participants who had a strong fruit-eating habit. The strongest predictor of their subsequent fruit consumption wasn't their prior intentions, but their sense of how easy it would be to eat fruit.
This has practical implications. The idea behind public health information campaigns is that they increase our intention to perform a given behaviour, via our attitudes, sense of social norms and feelings of control. However, if intentions are unrelated to future fruit eating in people who already eat fruit (though not enough) habitually, then information campaigns are unlikely to change their behaviour.
“Consequently, health behavioural change for those with strong habits may be more dependent on environmental manipulations – making healthy foods more readily available,” the researchers said.
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De Bruijn, G-J., Kremers, S.P.J., De Vet, E., De Nooijer, J., Van Mechelen, W. & Brug, J. (In press). Does habit strength moderate the intention-behaviour relationship in the Theory of Planned Behaviour? The case of fruit consumption. Psychology and Health.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
Using psychology to get people eating more fruit
Do you eat a piece of fruit on the way to work or school everyday without even thinking about it? Perhaps that is the full extent of your fruit eating? If so you're just the kind of person who won't be helped by public health information campaigns seeking to increase our fruit eating. That's according to a new study that suggests people who already eat fruit (though not enough) habitually are more likely to benefit from interventions that make fruit more easily available.A dominant theory in health psychology is the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which states that our attitudes, our perception of social norms and our sense of control all impact on our intentions to perform a given health behaviour, and therefore the likelihood we will perform that behaviour.
Gert-Jan de Bruijn and colleagues applied this theory to the fruit eating tendencies of 521 participants, but unlike most prior research, they added in a measure of habit – that is, whether the participants said they often ate fruit automatically, without thinking about it.
Consistent with the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the Dutch psychologists found that among the participants who had either a weak or medium fruit-eating habit, their self-reported intentions to eat fruit were predictive of their fruit consumption measured five weeks later.
Crucially, however, this wasn't true for the participants who had a strong fruit-eating habit. The strongest predictor of their subsequent fruit consumption wasn't their prior intentions, but their sense of how easy it would be to eat fruit.
This has practical implications. The idea behind public health information campaigns is that they increase our intention to perform a given behaviour, via our attitudes, sense of social norms and feelings of control. However, if intentions are unrelated to future fruit eating in people who already eat fruit (though not enough) habitually, then information campaigns are unlikely to change their behaviour.
“Consequently, health behavioural change for those with strong habits may be more dependent on environmental manipulations – making healthy foods more readily available,” the researchers said.
___________________________________
De Bruijn, G-J., Kremers, S.P.J., De Vet, E., De Nooijer, J., Van Mechelen, W. & Brug, J. (In press). Does habit strength moderate the intention-behaviour relationship in the Theory of Planned Behaviour? The case of fruit consumption. Psychology and Health.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Good News And Bad For A Popular Willpower-enhancing Strategy
In rich countries, temptation is never far and many of us struggle to achieve our long-term aims of moderation, dedication and fidelity. An increasingly popular strategy for regaining control is to form so-called implementation intentions. Rather than...
- How To Form A Habit
This has nothing to do with nuns' clothing. Habits are those behaviours that have become automatic, triggered by a cue in the environment rather than by conscious will. Health psychologists are interested for obvious reasons - they want to assist...
- A New Approach To Help Those Who Hear Voices
When it comes to the ‘positive’ symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hearing voices, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has mostly be used to help reduce the distress and burden that they can cause. But now Jerome Favrod and colleagues in Switzerland...
- The Trouble With Tephritidae
A True Fruit Fly - Tephritidae (via Myrmecos Blog) Bjoern Brembs has written extensively about the latest anti-science commentary by VP candidate Sarah Palin, who said... Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You've heard about...
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Now here's something unexpected... Fruit bats discovered to have menstrual cycles Scientists have discovered that a type of fruit bat menstruate in a similar way to women They say their findings – published in this month's issue of key journal...