Psychological reactance impacts ratings of pediatrician vaccine-related communication quality, perceived vaccine safety, and vaccination priority among U.S. parents.

Physician communication surrounding vaccination is important in driving patient compliance with schedules and recommendations, but patient psychological factors suggest that communication strategies may have differential effects on patients. This paper investigates how psychological reactance, defined as an individuals' propensity to restore their autonomy when they perceive that others are trying to impose their will on them, impacts perceptions about physician communication and perceptions and prioritizations of vaccination. We propose and describe the results of a study that was conducted to assess the relationship between individual differences in reactance, perceived quality of pediatrician communication, perceptions of vaccination safety, and vaccination prioritization using a sample of parents.

When variety is not the spice of life: The influence of perceived relational self-threat on variety seeking in snack choices.

People often seek variety in food choices because they believe variety offers them many benefits such as giving them a chance to explore new foods while decreasing the likelihood of boredom from eating the same food repeatedly. While much research has explored situational factors that increase variety seeking behavior, we explore a situational factor that decreases variety seeking. Specifically, this research investigates how perceived relational threat affects variety seeking in snack choices.

Negative associations of frozen compared with fresh vegetables.

Despite convenience and nutrition advantages of frozen vegetables, consumption of them is low compared with fresh vegetables and continues to decrease. In two studies, we observe a negative bias for frozen vegetables compared with fresh vegetables. In study 1, we used an Implicit Association Test (IAT) to demonstrate that generalized negative associations with frozen vegetables are automatic, robust, and ingrained in long-term memory.

Helping lower income parents reduce the risk of food waste resulting from children's aversion to healthier food options: Comment on Daniel (2016).

We reflect on Daniel's (2016) finding that a challenge to improving the diets of lower income children is parental worry over food waste that results from children's rejection of healthier food options such as vegetables. This finding has important implications because previous research has indicated novel foods that have a bitter or sour flavor profile (as is the case with many vegetables) must be introduced to children several times before these foods are accepted. We suggest research-based techniques that parents could utilize to reduce the risk of costly food waste, and discuss obstacles that could impede well-intended parents from reaching their goals of improving their children's diets.

Dissociation from beloved unhealthy brands decreases preference for and consumption of vegetables.

Many people form strong bonds with brands, including those for unhealthy foods. Thus, prompting people to dissociate from beloved but unhealthy food brands is an intuitively appealing means to shift consumption away from unhealthy options and toward healthy options. Contrary to this position, we demonstrate that dissociating from unhealthy but beloved brands diminishes people's interest in consuming vegetables because the dissociation depletes self-regulatory resources.

Time of day effects on the regulation of food consumption after activation of health goals.

Previous research has found that while self-regulation is a resource that can be depleted, enhanced motivation to do so can help people successfully self-regulate. The aim of this research was to determine whether activating health goals-either via laboratory priming techniques or via advertisements-can help people regulate food intake later in the day, when self-regulation resources are typically depleted. In two experimental studies, participants completed goal activation tasks in the morning or in the afternoon while they had a snack food (M&M's candies) available for consumption.

Activating health goals reduces (increases) hedonic evaluation of food brands for people who harbor highly positive (negative) affect toward them.

Associations of pleasure and fun with junk foods have the potential to create considerable challenges for efforts to improve diets. The aim of this research was to determine whether activating health goals had the potential to exploit mixed motivations (i.e.