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When making snack choices for children, parents are exposed to many child-targeted food packaging cues. This study aims to understand how different parental feeding goals (e.g. health versus fun versus taste) drive attention to these cues and how these cues help parents to make different snack choices. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 parents with at least one child between the ages of 3 and 12 years old. During the interviews, parents were primed with different feeding goals and asked to rank seven snack packages based on these goals. The interviews revealed three key takeaways regarding how parents consider snack packaging from a goal perspective. Firstly, packaging cues are interpreted (and thus used) differently when different feeding goals are salient. Secondly, cues are ignored when they do not offer valuable information for making goal-based assessments. Thirdly, when combining goals, parents either look for a combination of cues that fit their multiple goals, assess packaging based on a stepwise implementation of goals, or choose one dominant goal and rely on relevant packaging cues to rank snack packaging. This study widens the knowledge on how parental feeding goals can influence the food packaging choices parents make and the way in which they interpret packaging cues. The study can inspire policymakers by providing strategies to stimulate marketers to make the food environment healthier by steering consumers towards healthy food options and making these options more salient within environments where snacks are bought (e.g. supermarkets)., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background: Complementary and alternative veterinary medicine (CAVM) is increasingly popular in horses. As CAVM usage could have risks, client-veterinarian communication about CAVM is crucial., Objectives: Evaluating equine veterinarians' attitude towards CAVM, their CAVM usage and veterinarian-client communication about CAVM., Study Design: Cross-sectional study., Method: A telephone survey was conducted among equine veterinarians providing ambulatory care on a daily or weekly basis. The first section of the survey included questions about the veterinarians' attitude towards CAVM and their CAVM usage. The second section focused on veterinary-client communication about CAVM., Results: When herbs are included as CAVM modality, 83% of the participants applied CAVM. Nighty-eight percent had already communicated with horse owners about CAVM and 81% agreed to be open to talk about CAVM. However, 95% agreed that sometimes CAVM usage takes place without disclosure to the veterinarian. The majority of participants communicated about CAVM on a weekly (40%) or daily (22%) basis, most often in person during consultations (99%) or via phone (32%). The median percentage of conversations about CAVM initiated by the owner was 50% (range 50%-80%). When the veterinarian initiated the conversation, this was usually by mentioning it as a treatment option, mostly in addition to conventional treatments. Some participants directly asked about CAVM use in the information-gathering phase., Main Limitations: A convenience sample was used due to lack of data on the number of equine veterinarians in Flanders. Potential favourability bias with higher participation of veterinarians interested in CAVM., Conclusion: Equine veterinarians generally had a positive attitude towards CAVM use, although this depended on the specific modality. Veterinarian-client communication about CAVM occurs frequently in ambulatory care. An open dialogue with horse owners about CAVM is important to provide information about CAVM and thus enable them to make informed decisions concerning CAVM usage, together with their veterinarian., (© 2023 EVJ Ltd.)

The present study examines how content of fitfluencers can be employed to improve body satisfaction and intention to exercise among adolescents. Specifically, this experimental study ( N  = 114 adolescents, age: 16-18) compares the effects of fitfluencer content with instructional captions that contain exercise or workout instructions (as a form of edutainment) with those of self-focused fitfluencer captions that emphasize the fitfluencer's appearance. These two types of captions are found to induce no significant differences in either body satisfaction or intention to exercise. In addition, there were no significant indirect effects via state appearance comparison or self-efficacy. The results do show that less state appearance comparisons increase body satisfaction, and that more self-efficacy increases body satisfaction and intention to exercise. The results suggest that instructions in fitfluencer captions do not differ from self-focused captions in their effects on body satisfaction and intention to exercise among adolescents.

Media exposure for dark consumption products mostly shows glamorized and positive portrayals, rarely showing the negative consequences of consuming those products. However, the Netflix series Squid Game addresses the issue of gambling in its most extreme forms and shows the negative consequences related to it in a shocking manner, which begs the question whether watching the series could act as a preventive tool to increase risk perceptions, de-normalize gambling and reduce gambling behavior. A pre-registered survey study ( N  = 271) examined whether watching the Netflix series Squid Game affected young adults' (18 to 35 years old) gambling intentions and play behavior through risk perceptions, subjective norms and attitudes toward gambling, and what role audience involvement plays. Although the results show that watching Squid Game increased young adults' subjective norms of gambling (i.e. belief that significant others approve of the behavior in question) and further increased their positive attitudes toward gambling and gambling intention, the study also found an important impact of audience involvement. Audiences who were more involved with the series saw greater risks of gambling and perceived gambling to be less common. This resulted in more negative attitudes toward gambling and further less gambling intention and more motivation to change gambling behavior due to watching Squid Game.

Objective: Despite the widespread use of harm prevention messages on gambling advertising, it is unclear whether such messages achieve their goal of encouraging safer gambling behavior and preventing gambling harms. The current research therefore investigates whether and how existing harm prevention messages implemented on gambling advertisements in Belgium and the Netherlands affect consumers' gambling-related beliefs and intentions., Method: Two experimental studies (N experiment 1 = 169; N experiment 2 = 212) investigate (a) the influence of message prominence and (b) the impact of message framing by comparing the effectiveness of the message "Gamble in moderation" with different types of Flemish and Dutch harm prevention messages (that are currently used in Belgium and the Netherlands) on people's gambling-related beliefs and intentions., Results: The results of the first experiment show that although the size of a harm prevention message may increase message recognition, it does not affect the message's efficacy. In addition, the second experiment shows that the harm prevention message "Gamble in moderation" increases normative perceptions of gambling (vs. no message), and even enhances gambling intentions among at-risk gamblers compared to no message and other commonly used harm prevention messages. In contrast, exposure to the harm prevention message "What does gambling cost you? Stop in time" makes at-risk gamblers think most about the harms of gambling., Conclusions: Current harm prevention messages on gambling advertising often promote the concept of responsible gambling, but can have opposite effects than intended, especially among at-risk gamblers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Animal-based diets in Western countries are increasingly regarded as unsustainable because of their impact on human health, environmental and animal welfare. Promoting shifts toward more plant-based diets seems an effective way to avoid these harms in practice. Nevertheless, claims against the consumption of animal products contradict the ideology of the omnivorous majority known as carnism. Carnism supports animal-product consumption as a cherished social habit that is harmless and unavoidable and invalidates minorities with plant-based diets: vegetarians and vegans (veg*ns). In this theoretical review, we integrate socio-psychological and empirical literature to provide an identity-based motivational account of ideological resistance to veg*n advocacy. Advocates who argue against the consumption of animal products often make claims that it is harmful, and avoidable by making dietary changes toward veg*n diets. In response, omnivores are likely to experience a simultaneous threat to their moral identity and their identity as consumer of animal products, which may arouse motivations to rationalize animal-product consumption and to obscure harms. If omnivores engage in such motivated reasoning and motivated ignorance, this may also inform negative stereotyping and stigmatization of veg*n advocates. These "pro-carnist" and "counter-veg*n" defenses can be linked with various personal and social motivations to eat animal products (e.g., meat attachment, gender, speciesism) and reinforce commitment to and ambivalence about eating animal products. This does not mean, however, that veg*n advocates cannot exert any influence. An apparent resistance may mask indirect and private acceptance of advocates' claims, priming commitment to change behavior toward veg*n diets often at a later point in time. Based on our theoretical account, we provide directions for future research., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 De Groeve, Bleys and Hudders.)

Food marketing to children is ubiquitous and persuasive. It primarily promotes foods of poor nutritional quality, influences children's food preferences and habits, and is a factor in childhood obesity. Given that food marketing relentlessly targets children in traditional/digital media and the built environment, children need critical media literacy skills that build their understanding of food marketing's persuasive effects. However, little research connects media literacy with food marketing and health, including effective strategies for teaching and evaluating such programming for children. This perspective presents the outcomes of a stakeholder meeting on best practices in teaching and evaluation on media literacy and food marketing to children. Strategies for promoting critical thinking (teaching content, teaching practices, teaching supports, and parent/caregiver involvement), and strategies for measuring critical thinking (program effectiveness and broader long-term impacts) were identified. These include, among other things, the need to capture the range of marketing formats and current food promotion trends , to include inquiry-based and co-creation activities , and to support ongoing media literacy development . Overall, these strategies suggest useful criteria for media literacy programming related to food marketing, and highlight the importance of media literacy for giving children the skills to navigate a complex food environment., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Elliott, Truman, Nelson, Scheibe, Hudders, De Jans, Brisson-Boivin, McAleese, Johnson, Walker and Ellison.)

Ambivalent attitudes exist toward vegans: While people may admire vegans' moral aims and commitment, they may also derogate vegans for seeming arrogant and overcommitted. These latter negative perceptions may undermine the effectiveness of efforts to reduce meat consumption for health, animal-welfare, and sustainability benefits. In the present research, we investigated the role of a vegan's motivation (animal ethics vs. health) in moralized attitudes toward vegans among omnivorous participants through two preregistered studies. In Study 1 (N = 390), we found that a vegan advocate motivated by animal ethics (vs. health) was seen as more moral but not as more arrogantly overcommitted. In Study 2 (N = 1177), we found that animal ethics (vs. health) vegans were seen as both more arrogantly committed and more morally committed, but that relative moral commitment perceptions were attenuated when vegans were described as actively advocating. Both advocating (vs. non-advocating) vegans and animal ethics (vs. health) vegans were generally seen as less socially attractive by omnivores due to stronger attributions of arrogant overcommitment, and a lower social attractiveness was associated with a lower willingness to eat less animal products. Our findings inform ongoing debates within the vegan movement about the effectiveness of signaling moral commitment in promoting plant-based diets., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The current study examines how social media influencers can be deployed to promote healthy food choice behavior among tweens. In particular, we investigated whether tweens' healthy food choice behavior can be stimulated by using a thin-ideal influencer in a sponsored influencer post promoting unhealthy vs. healthy food. A two-by-two, between-subjects experimental study (influencer weight: thin-ideal vs. overweight; snack-type: unhealthy vs. healthy) was conducted with 146 tweens (11-13 years old, 73 boys). Results show that tweens' choice for a healthy snack was higher when a (female) overweight influencer promoted an unhealthy snack (compared to a healthy snack). Using a thin-ideal influencer promoting an unhealthy vs. healthy snack did not affect tweens' healthy food choices. While there were no interaction effects of influencer weight and snack type on source effects (influencer credibility, influencer admiration, and trans -parasocial interactions), the results did show that the influencer was perceived as less credible and was admired less when she was overweight vs. when she had a thin-ideal body-type., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 De Jans, Hudders, Naderer and De Pauw.)

This study explored how children (9-13 years old) coped with the uncertain situation during the first Covid-19 confinement period (Spring 2020) and whether media helped them handle the situation. Based on a survey among 667 West-European (Belgian) children, we concluded that children used various strategies to cope with the situation. Seeking social support via social media and searching for distraction was applied by most children. Creating a comforting atmosphere was used by many, although not evaluated as an effective strategy. Whereas older children searched for Covid-19-related information, younger children indicated to avoid news media to regulate their emotions. The Covid-19 anxiety of parents in the confinement period impacted upon the general level of concerns of their children. The results offer policy recommendations on how to support children in handling the tensive Covid-19 situation, especially during lockdown periods., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The industrial farming and slaughtering of animals may be considered one of the most pressing ethical problems of our time, yet consumers remain empathically disconnected from food animals and continue to eat meat. Therefore, animal advocacy groups have started using virtual reality (VR) outreach to promote consumers' concern for food animals and persuade them to eat less meat. In this study, we examined whether a short 360° documentary depicting the life cycle of factory farmed pigs (from their lives on the farm to their death in the slaughterhouse) experienced in a VR format versus in a regular video format increases participants' intentions to eat less meat via an increased feeling of presence and empathic concern. Using a single factor experimental design, we randomly allocated participants (n = 84 after data-cleaning) to answer a questionnaire following one of both conditions (VR versus video documentary, each n = 42). Results confirmed our hypothesized serial mediation model; VR (versus video) had a positive influence on presence and additionally on empathic concern, leading to higher intentions of reduced meat consumption among participants. Yet, VR (versus video) also had a direct, negative effect on empathy when controlling for presence, so no total effect of medium format on intentions to reduce meat could be found. This counter-effect of VR on empathic concern could be explained by an increased level of speciesism among participants exposed to the VR (versus video) documentary, a finding that is consistent with prior literature on speciesism, cognitive dissonance and dissociation, and requires further confirmatory investigation. Limitations and implications for theory and practice of the study are considered., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this preregistered study we examined why people with an omnivorous diet (i.e., omnivores) would view vegetarians and vegans (i.e., veg*ns) as less socially attractive based on their status as stigmatized moral minorities. Drawing on a recently demonstrated distinction between perceived morality and sociability in research on universal dimensions of stereotype content, we expected that veg*ns would be perceived as more moral but less sociable compared to omnivores. A lower perceived sociability would predict a lower social attractiveness of veg*ns, supported by two additional stereotypes theorized to be specifically associated with moral minorities: moralistic and eccentric impressions. In addition, we explored impressions toward people who consciously reduce their meat intake (i.e., flexitarians) and we complemented our quantitative analysis with an analysis of stereotype content omnivores freely associated with the dietary groups. Accordingly, using a single factor between-subjects experimental design, we randomly allocated a diverse sample of omnivores from the UK to answer questions about either omnivores (n = 100), flexitarians (n = 101), vegetarians (n = 105) or vegans (n = 106). Results largely confirmed our hypotheses: Although veg*ns were perceived as more moral, they were also stereotyped more negatively (especially vegans). More specifically, they were seen as more eccentric and, in particular, more moralistic, predicting a lower social attractiveness, though indirect effects via sociability were relatively small. Notably, flexitarians shared positive attributes of both non-flexitarian groups. Free association data were largely consistent with our results and provide additional direction for further inquiry. Novel theoretical contributions are highlighted and limitations, future research directions, and implications of our study for theory and practice are discussed., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

While influencer marketing has been shown to be effective at promoting food low in nutritional value among children, it is less clear whether influencers can also be used to promote healthy nutrition. This article reports on the results of an experimental study on whether and how influencer marketing on Instagram can be deployed to stimulate healthy eating behavior among children. In particular, the study examines whether signaling a healthy, athletic lifestyle can affect children's healthy snack choice (i.e., choice of a snack high in nutritional value). To do so, a two (influencer lifestyle: sedentary versus athletic) by two (snack type: low in nutritional value versus high in nutritional value) between-subjects experiment was conducted among 190 children between eight and 12 years. The results show that promoting a sedentary lifestyle (compared to an athletic lifestyle) resulted in more children choosing the product high in nutritional value. In addition, the children chose a healthy snack more frequently when an influencer portraying a sedentary lifestyle (compared to an athletic lifestyle) promoted a product low in nutritional value. There were no significant interaction effects of influencer lifestyle and snack type on the evaluation of the influencer. However, the study did show that there was less admiration for the influencer when they portrayed a sedentary lifestyle versus an athletic lifestyle., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Next to physical health problems and economic damage, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and associated lockdown measures taken by governments of many countries are expected to cause mental health problems. Especially for adolescents, who highly rely on social contacts with peers, the prolonged period of social isolation may have detrimental effects on their mental health. Based on the mood management theory, the current study examines if social media are beneficial for adolescents to cope with feelings of anxiety and loneliness during the quarantine. A survey study among 2,165 (Belgian) adolescents (13-19 years old) tested how feelings of anxiety and loneliness contributed to their happiness level, and whether different social media coping strategies (active, social relations, and humor) mediated these relations. Structural equation modeling revealed that feelings of loneliness had a higher negative impact on adolescents' happiness than feelings of anxiety. However, anxious participants indicated to use social media more often to actively seek for a manner to adapt to the current situation, and to a lesser extent as a way to keep in touch with friends and family. The indirect effect of anxiety on happiness through active coping was significantly positive. Participants who were feeling lonely were more inclined to use social media to cope with lacking social contact. However, this coping strategy was not significantly related to their happiness feelings. Humorous coping was positively related with feelings of happiness, but not influenced by loneliness or anxiety. To conclude, social media can be used as a constructive coping strategy for adolescents to deal with anxious feelings during the COVID-19 quarantine.

Macrocyclic lactone resistance in Psoroptes ovis mites, causing psoroptic mange, is emerging in beef cattle. Therefore, diagnostic tools that can indicate macrocyclic lactone resistance should be implemented at farms in order to control these parasitic infections and slow down emerging resistance. Unfortunately, the adoption of such tools remains relatively poor. This study explores which beliefs, and behavioural biases that misconstrue these beliefs, underlie farmers' adoption intention. Five semi-structured focus groups were conducted with Belgian Blue cattle farmers (n = 38). Inductive analysis revealed that farmers' positive attitudes towards acaricides use and risk perception towards acaricide resistance made them rather reluctant to implement diagnostic tools. In addition, farmers' susceptibility to acaricide resistance occurring on their farm was weakened by the optimism and availability bias. Deductive analysis revealed that economic reasons, usefulness of the diagnostic tool and contribution to animal wellbeing motivated farmers to adopt such tools (i.e., behavioural beliefs). However, the loss aversion and time discounting bias weakened farmers' beliefs related to economic reasons. The veterinarian was seen as the responsible actor for implementing diagnostic tools, while colleague-farmers' opinion related to the diagnostic tool was also valued (i.e., normative beliefs). The latter belief was strengthened by the bandwagon-effect bias. Farmers' beliefs about economic costs related to the diagnostic tool tended to hinder adoption intention, while the veterinarian's assistance motivated farmers to implement such tools (i.e., control beliefs). The loss aversion bias also strengthened farmers' control beliefs related to the diagnostic tools' perceived costs. As such, this article provides more insights into the (ir)rational factors shaping farmers' intention to adopt diagnostic tools. These insights might help animal health organisations to design communication strategies to stimulate the adoption of diagnostic tools on beef cattle farms., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Preschool children are generally assumed to lack the skills to critically respond to advertising despite being exposed to a high number of advertising messages while watching videos on YouTube. However, research on how preschool children process YouTube advertising is scarce. This study conducts an experiment to examine how preschool children's (4-5 years old, N  = 62) responses to video advertising (20-second toy commercial) vary between YouTube and television viewing. The results suggest that almost half of the children were able to distinguish advertising from regular media content, and almost 70% of the children could correctly identify that the video was advertising. No differences were found between the two media. Children were not skeptical toward the video advertisement. With regard to ad effects, the results show low brand and product recall, whereas aided recall was higher (around 40% of the children could correctly recognize the product and brand shown in the advertisement). These findings suggest that 4-5-year-old children already have a proper understanding of advertising, but lack a critical attitude. Furthermore, children's advertising literacy does not vary between YouTube and television advertising.

Children nowadays spend many hours online watching YouTube videos in which their favorite vloggers are playing games, unboxing toys, reviewing products, making jokes or just going about their daily activities. These vloggers regularly post attractive and entertaining content in the hope of building a large follower base. Although many of these vloggers are adults, the number of child vloggers is flourishing. The famous child vlogger Ryan of Ryan's World, for instance, has more than 19 million viewers and he is (at age seven) a social media influencer. The popularity of these vloggers incited advertisers to include them as a new marketing communication tool, also referred to as influencer marketing, in their marketing strategy. Accordingly, many influential vloggers now receive free products from brands in return for a mention in one of their videos and their other social media (e.g., TikTok or Instagram) and some are even paid to create a sponsored post or video and distribute it to their followers. This sponsored content appears to be highly influential and may affect young children's brand preferences. Given the limited advertising literacy skills (i.e., knowledge of advertising and skills to critically reflect on this advertising) of children under age 12, they are a vulnerable target group when it comes to persuasion. Therefore, caution is needed when implementing this marketing tactic to target them. However, research on how influencer marketing affects young children (under 12) is scarce and it is unclear how these young children can be empowered to critically cope with this fairly new form of persuasion. This paper therefore aims to shed light on why and how social media influencers have persuasive power over their young followers. The paper starts with providing insights into how and why social media influencers became a new source in advertising. We then discuss the few studies that have been conducted on influencer marketing among young children (under 12), based on a systematic literature review, and take these findings to formulate societal and policy implications and develop a future research agenda., (Copyright © 2019 De Veirman, Hudders and Nelson.)

Resistance against macrocyclic lactones is emerging in Psoroptes ovis mites, the cause of psoroptic mange in sheep and cattle. Therefore, sustainable mange control approaches should be implemented to prevent or slow down resistance. To ensure a proper implementation of such approaches, it is crucial to understand the factors that may impede or facilitate adoption of these practices among farmers. A conceptual model that combines insights from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB, Ajzen, 1991) - a theory that predicts human behaviour -, with insights from behavioural economics (Camerer, 2004; Samson, 2016) - a theory that assumes that behavioural biases or reasoning errors are pervasive in decision-making -, was developed to predict farmers' adoption intention. In particular, this paper examines how behavioural economics can influence farmers' beliefs related to sustainable mange control and through which pathways these biased beliefs can predict adoption intention. A cross-sectional survey study amongst 174 Belgian Blue cattle farmers has been conducted and Structural Equation Modelling was used for analyses. In particular, the model shows that farmers' positive attitudes towards a sustainable mange control method (attitude) and their perceptions of how others evaluate the sustainable control methods (subjective norms) more strongly predict adoption intention than perceived behavioural control. Additionally, the model shows that adoption intention is explained by the bandwagon bias -the belief that other farmers have a positive opinion about the control method-, and availability bias - farmers who have the belief that mange occurs often on their farm - through the determinants of TPB. Although this bandwagon bias influences farmers adoption intention, the rather low presence of availability bias might explain why adoption intention of a sustainable mange control method is limited. Next, retaining to the default treatment (default bias) influences farmers' belief that they are capable of implementing control methods on their farm (perceived behavioural control), while the belief that implementing a control method is perceived as a cost for their farm rather than being beneficial (loss aversion bias) negatively influences attitude and perceived behavioural control. We further discuss important implications that can incite farmers' adoption intention., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The legitimacy of meat-rich diets in Western societies is slowly in decline as the benefits of meat reduction for personal health, ecological welfare, and animal welfare are become increasingly clear. This is mirrored by a surge of campaigns, which rely heavily on social media platforms to legitimize meat reduction among their target audience: meat-eaters. Social Identity Theory suggests that the effectiveness of meat reduction advocacy will depend on the dietary identity of advocates and their rhetorical style. To examine this, we used a 2 × 2 between-participants factorial design in which we exposed meat-eaters (N = 186) to a meat reduction campaign image shared by an advocate on Facebook, where the advocate was portrayed as either a meat-eater (ingroup) or a vegetarian (outgroup), who used either inclusive language ("we can eat less meat") or personal language ("you can eat less meat") to promote meat reduction. Results reveal that the meat-eating (versus vegetarian) advocate was more likely perceived as inconsistent when promoting meat reduction. Higher perceptions of inconsistency were significantly associated with a lower perceived legitimacy of the message for both advocate types, especially when the advocate was a vegetarian. We also found that meat-eaters were more tolerant of a perceived inconsistency when advocates used inclusive rather than personal language. Perceptions of favouritism towards the advocate could explain the conditional effects of perceived inconsistency on message legitimacy. Lastly, we could observe that meat-eaters who perceived the message as more legitimate and identified less as meat-eaters were more willing to eat less meat. Practical implications of our findings are considered., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Television (TV) cooking shows have evolved from focusing on educating to focusing on entertaining, as well. At present, educational TV cooking shows focus on the transfer of cooking knowledge and skills, whereas edutainment TV cooking shows focus on entertaining their viewers. Both types of shows are ongoing success stories. However, little is known regarding the shows' links with the cooking and eating habits of their audiences. Therefore, the current study investigates the relationship between watching an educational or edutainment TV cooking show and one's cooking and eating habits. Given public health concerns regarding the decline in cooking behaviors and the simultaneous increase in caloric intake from food outside the home, this study suggests a promising intervention. The results of a cross-sectional survey in Belgium (n = 845) demonstrate that the audiences of educational and edutainment TV cooking shows do not overlap. Although there is little connection between watching specific shows and eating behavior, the connection between watching shows and cooking behaviors varies across gender and age lines. Behaviors also differ depending on whether the viewer is watching an educational or edutainment cooking show. For example, men of all ages appear to cook more often if they watch an educational show. However, only older men (above 38 years) seem to cook more often if they watch an edutainment TV show. The results demonstrate that the relationship between watching TV cooking shows and cooking habits warrants further investigation., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this work is to explore the relation between morality and diet choice by investigating how animal and human welfare attitudes and donation behaviors can predict a meat eating versus flexitarian versus vegetarian diet. The results of a survey study (N=299) show that animal health concerns (measured by the Animal Attitude Scale) can predict diet choice. Vegetarians are most concerned, while full-time meat eaters are least concerned, and the contrast between flexitarians and vegetarians is greater than the contrast between flexitarians and full-time meat eaters. With regards to human welfare (measured by the Moral Foundations Questionnaire), results show that attitudes towards human suffering set flexitarians apart from vegetarians and attitudes towards authority and respect distinguish between flexitarians and meat eaters. To conclude, results show that vegetarians donate more often to animal oriented charities than flexitarians and meat eaters, while no differences between the three diet groups occur for donations to human oriented charities., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Previous studies on luxury consumption demonstrated that men spend large sums of money on luxury brands to signal their mate value to women and, thus, increase their reproductive success. Although women also spend copious amounts of money on luxuries, research focusing on women's motives for luxury consumption is rather scarce. Relying on costly signaling and intrasexual competition theory, the goal of the current study was to test whether female intrasexual competition in a mate attraction context triggers women's spending on luxuries. The results of the first experiment reveal that an intrasexual competition context enhances women's preferences for attractiveness enhancing, but not for non-attractiveness related luxuries such as a smartphone. This finding indicates that women may use luxury consumption as a self-promotion strategy during within-sex competitions, as these luxuries improve their advantages against same-sex rivals for mates. A follow-up study shows that compared to women who do not consume luxuries, women who do so are perceived as more attractive, flirty, young, ambitious, sexy, and less loyal, mature and smart by other women. These results suggest that luxury consumption may provide information about a women's willingness to engage in sex, as well as her views about other women, and consequently, her success in intrasexual competitions.

This study explores vegetarians' and semi-vegetarians' motives for reducing their meat intake. Participants are categorized as vegetarians (remove all meat from their diet); semi-vegetarians (significantly reduce meat intake: at least three days a week); or light semi-vegetarians (mildly reduce meat intake: once or twice a week). Most differences appear between vegetarians and both groups of semi-vegetarians. Animal-rights and ecological concerns, together with taste preferences, predict vegetarianism, while an increase in health motives increases the odds of being semi-vegetarian. Even within each group, subgroups with different motives appear, and it is recommended that future researchers pay more attention to these differences.