New Study: Salad on Fast Food Menus Triggers French Fry Cravings
A new study reported
in the Journal of Consumer Research, reveals that when healthy items are put on a fast food menu, people order more french fries. Wait...what? Is the mere presence of lettuce on the menu enough to send consumers into a panic which requires fried food to calm them? Or is something more sinister at work here?
In one study, college students were given one of two menus. One menu featured French fries, chicken nuggets and a baked potato; the other included those same items as well as a salad. The French fries, widely perceived as the least healthful option, were three times as popular with students selecting from the menu that had the salad as they were with the other group.
"When you consider the healthy option, you say, well, I could have that option," said Keith Wilcox, a doctoral candidate at Baruch College who is one of the paper's four authors. "That lowers your guard, leading to self-indulgent behavior."
The diners most affected by the presence of a healthful item were those with the highest levels of self-control, as measured by a widely used test. Those with less self-control were far likelier to order the fries in the no-salad condition; but when the salad was included, some of them opted for it.
That's human nature for you. The only conclusion we can draw from this is that dieters should probably steer clear of fast food restaurants. But you already knew that, didn't you?
