{"id":182946,"date":"2021-04-08T09:45:45","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T09:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=182946"},"modified":"2021-04-08T09:45:45","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T09:45:45","slug":"portraying-humans-as-machines-to-promote-health-makes-us-eat-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2021\/04\/08\/portraying-humans-as-machines-to-promote-health-makes-us-eat-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"Portraying Humans as Machines to Promote Health Makes Us Eat Worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever seen an ad telling you something like \u201cEat to fuel your body, not to feed your emotions\u201d? You\u2019re not alone. This marketing style that shows humans as machines and food as fuel is often used in a positive way to help us make healthier choices. Unfortunately, a new study from the University of Amsterdam and Stanford University published in the Journal of Marketing shows that it might not be producing the desired effect.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Governments and companies use it<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One thing that we associate with machines is that they rely solely on their \u201chead\u201d to make rational decisions because they lack a human heart (emotion). Most developed countries adopted these cognitive, head-based approaches in efforts to improve public health. People are encouraged to read nutrition labels and calculate calories to maintain optimal health.<\/p>\n

\"Human<\/a>
Humans are often compared to machines. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is reinforced throughout our culture. For example, the National Geographic series “The Incredible Human Machine”<\/a> described unhealthy behaviours as (human) “errors” in the maintenance of our bodily machine.<\/p>\n

And food companies are taking advantage of this as well. The supplement manufacturer Centrum asks consumers to “power the human machine”<\/a> with vitamin pills. Nestl\u00e9, on the other hand, encourages indulgence as the \u201chuman\u201d thing to do. Their tagline \u201cWorking like a machine? Have a Kit Kat.\u201d motivates consumers to be more like humans and have a chocolate bar,<\/a> a choice that rational machines wouldn\u2019t make.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Red Bull suggests that consuming their beverage makes you analytical and rational like a human machine.<\/p>\n

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