It’s possible, however, that some of these same marketing tactics could be leveraged to empower kids to make better choices, he says. Michal Maimaran, professor of marketing at the Kellogg School. Creating good eating habits is a long-term process that involves building a healthy relationship with food, day by day, meal by meal. Parents need to know that even if they win the week, they are still playing a big game.
Marketers know that shaping matters in how children make choices. So, for example, presenting decisions as simultaneous (choosing a number of products at once) or sequential (choosing one product at a time each day) makes a difference to what people end up choosing. This works for kids too: asking them to pick snacks for the week at once will lead them to choose a wider variety of healthier options.
HereMaimaran, and her co-author Margaret Echelbarger of Stony Brook University, offer parents and caregivers insights from marketing research that they can put into practice at the kitchen table and beyond.
Focus on liking more than choosing
Parents often wonder if their child is finally making a healthy choice. But there could be a more efficient way to frame these decisions, Maimaran says. She suggests shifting the focus from asking children to choose healthy options to creating a preference for healthier foods through repeated exposure.
In other words, parents should reset their expectations. If they hope that a toddler will always choose carrots over crackers, they will inevitably be disappointed, but, little by little, behavior change—gradually teaching the child to love carrots and see them as a viable option—can eventually lead to to the desired result.
“You can’t expect a six-year-old to choose broccoli over mac and cheese every time,” she says. “It’s just not realistic. But by exposing them to broccoli every now and then, it will become part of their mind set.”
Indeed, parents should recognize that helping a child learn to like a food, or even accept it as a choice, counts as substantial progress, even if the results are not immediately apparent or measurable.
“It’s important to realize that sympathy also matters,” she says. “If we’re able to change a child’s attitude towards healthier options, then maybe in the long run, we’ll see them choose healthier options more often.”
Build kids’ self-control muscles while you still have (some) control
A child who is served only carrots and broccoli at home will never learn how to develop the self-restraint he must exercise when he inevitably enters the wide world of pie, cake and ice cream. This means that parents need to provide children with opportunities to exercise self-control so that they can gradually build this muscle.
“If we never give them the choice between the healthy and unhealthy choices and always enforce the healthy choices, they’re not going to create healthy eating habits of their own,” says Maimaran.
This muscle takes time to strengthen, which means that this process may occasionally involve watching your child eat an entire plate of cookies while they are still developing their ability to self-control. “We can safely think of it as failure,” he says. However, she points to research showing that placing limits on the amount of food children eat can backfire, making children want to eat more. unexpectedly, This finding holds true even when the boring food is healthy—although, of course, parents more often set limits on eating unhealthy foods (“Just one cookie!”).
“On the contrary, if children can learn to control their own consumption, they will be able to do better independently,” she says, which is especially important as they get older and are more likely to make food choices away from their parents.
Understand the influences children receive
If you thought those TV jingles that appeared between cartoons were very effective (or at least catchy), consider today’s online advertising landscape, which is much more targeted and personalized.
Every time kids go online it has the potential to expose them to ads tailored to the content they’re viewing, Maimaran says. Combine this with offline influences such as parents, teachers, siblings, and peers, and children can psychologically “star” multiple times a day through exposure to different images and messages about food, weight, health, and more. issues.
“In kids’ social world, both online and offline, they’re exposed to hundreds of these prime numbers, especially when they’re scrolling online,” he says. “And these social media channels know how to tailor the content these kids see.”
Since parents can’t control what their kids see online, like every calorie they put into their mouths, Maimaran advises them to communicate with kids about their use of social media, as well as to encourage self-control. how much time they spend online.
“Parents need to recognize that this is part of their lives and children want to be part of their lives,” says Maimaran. By having open conversations, parents can explain how the social media economy works and help their children think more critically about what they consume online.
Mamairan suggests teaching kids to question what it means to be on social media and what motivates influencers’ messages. Parents can point out that an influencer may not be promoting a product out of genuine concern for the health or well-being of their followers, but because a company has sponsored them.
“Explain that these people are trying to sell you something that may not be beneficial to you,” he says. “Parents want to have an open conversation with their kids where they ask: What social media influences do you want to follow? What are you posting? What do you see; This can help you understand that these posts may not be trustworthy, that they are trying to trick you into doing something.”
