Identity-matched influencers may sway teens toward unhealthy snacks

Social media food marketing may have a stronger pull on adolescents when influencers share their racial or ethnic identity, according to an NYU-led study. The finding matters because teens encounter food promotions on social platforms daily, and the research links that attention to a greater preference for unhealthy snacks.

The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, examined what researchers described as identity-based targeting in influencer posts. New York University said marketers increasingly use paid promoters who resemble the audiences they want to reach, a practice researchers call identity congruence.

Emily Balcetis, an associate professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and lead author of the paper, said adolescence is a key period for social modeling. She said influencers who share followers’ identities can draw attention and help signal what people like those followers do, value and eat.

Marie Bragg, an associate professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a study author, said the person delivering the message can affect how teens respond. According to Bragg, some minority adolescents are more affected by unhealthy food marketing when the pitch comes from influencers who share their racial or ethnic background.

How the experiments worked

The researchers ran two experiments with teenage participants. In the first, more than 500 Black and non-Hispanic white teens ages 13 to 19 viewed social media-style images showing an adolescent or young adult promoter endorsing either an unhealthy food, such as an Oreo snack pack, or a nonfood product, such as a business card.

The researchers changed the race of the promoter and the featured product while keeping other visual details similar. Participants were randomly assigned to see one version of a post, then rated the person and post on measures including whether they seemed cool, attractive and interesting, and whether the promoter caught their eye.

To measure food preference, the researchers showed participants 20 pairs of snacks. Each pair included one less healthy snack and one healthier option matched on features such as color, shape and size, including an example pairing of a green popsicle with a cucumber. Teens selected which item they wanted to eat at that moment.

In the first experiment, NYU said racial matching increased visual interest among Black adolescents, while the same effect was not significant among white adolescents. Black teens found posts with Black promoters more interesting than posts with white promoters.

When the posts showed unhealthy foods, teens who reported more visual interest also chose more unhealthy foods. The researchers said this pattern was stronger among Black teens than white teens. They also found that Black adolescents were more likely to say they would like, comment on or share posts they found visually interesting, regardless of the product.

Effect extended to other minority groups

The second experiment expanded the sample to nearly 900 teenagers who identified as Black, East Asian, Hispanic or non-Hispanic white. The method was almost the same, with added posts featuring East Asian and Hispanic male and female promoters endorsing the same unhealthy food or nonfood products used in the first experiment.

NYU said the second experiment produced a similar pattern. Racial congruence increased visual interest for all non-white adolescent groups studied — Black, East Asian and Hispanic teens — while the effect was not significant for white adolescents.

Across those groups, greater visual interest in posts promoting unhealthy foods was tied to a greater likelihood of choosing unhealthy foods over healthier options. Balcetis said the study identifies visual interest as a mechanism connecting racially targeted food marketing with unhealthy food preferences among adolescents.

Other authors of the paper were Jordan Daley, an NYU research fellow at the time of the study; Eunha Choi, an NYU graduate student; and Omni Cassidy, an assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

This story draws on original reporting from Phys.org.