Placebo Effect on Food Labeling

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose of my project was to determine if changing the food labeling on a food product would change how people perceived the food. Methods/Materials The materials I used for my project were people, paper plates, paper cups, pencils, pack of different types of regular fat foods, pack of different types of reduced fat foods, tally sheets for my first and second experiment. The way I did my project was like this: First, buy the products at a store all together. Secondly, clear an area in the experimental area. Next, set up the cups with water. After that, switch at least half of the regular fat foods, and put it in the low fat boxes, and then do the same with the low fat and the regular fats. Then you must get different people to test the products. After that, take out the different foods from the packages in front of the people being tested. Next, set one type of food of regular fat on plate A. Also set one type of food of reduced fat on plate B. Then have the person taste the food on plate A. Next, have the person taste the food on plate B. After that, have them take a sip of water from the paper cup to cleanse the palates. Then, have the person circle on the tally sheet what they thought #Regular Fat# was, A or B. Also repeat the steps above with the 14 products that you still have left. Finally, count up the tally sheets, and then find the percentage of the incorrect answers, and the correct answers on the foods you did not change around, and then do the same with the foods you changed around. I also did a second experiment to get a more clear determination as to what degree of influence labeling had on people. Results The results of my experiment showed that people could tell the difference between a Regular Fat food item and a Low Fat food item even if the items were rearranged. When in doubt, however, they would rely on the packaging label. Conclusions/Discussion The experimental data did support my hypothesis to some degree, indicating that changing the food labeling on a food product could influence how people perceived a food. The results showed that labeling influenced about 30% of the people tested.

Competition history

• CSEF 2008 Cognitive Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0619

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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