Rewarding behavior with a sweet food strengthens its valuation

verfasst von

Jan M. Bauer, Marina Schröder, Martina Vecchi, Tina Bake, Suzanne L. Dickson, Michèle Belot

Abstract

Sweet foods are commonly used as rewards for desirable behavior, specifically among children. This study examines whether such practice may contribute to reinforce the valuation of these foods. Two experiments were conducted, one with children, the other with rats. The first study, conducted with first graders (n = 214), shows that children who receive a food reward for performing a cognitive task subsequently value the food more compared to a control group who received the same food without performing any task. The second study, conducted on rats (n = 64), shows that rewarding with food also translates into higher calorie intake over a 24-hour period. These results suggest that the common practice of rewarding children with calorie-dense sweet foods is a plausible contributing factor to obesity and might therefore be ill advised.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät

Externe Organisation(en)

Copenhagen Business School (CBS)
Pennsylvania State University
Göteborgs Universitet
Cornell University

Typ

Artikel

Journal

PLOS ONE

Band

16

Anzahl der Seiten

11

ISSN

1932-6203

Publikationsdatum

14.04.2021

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Allgemein

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 3 – Gute Gesundheit und Wohlergehen

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242461 (Zugang: Offen)
https://doi.org/10.15488/12360 (Zugang: Offen)