“Why Can't We Stop Eating?”: an Investigation of the Emotional and Cognitive Processing of and Reactivity Toward Cues in F
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“WHY CAN’T WE STOP EATING?”: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE PROCESSING OF AND REACTIVITY TOWARD CUES IN FOOD ADVERTISEMENTS By JIAWEI LIU A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication JULY 2018 © Copyright by JIAWEI LIU, 2018 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by JIAWEI LIU, 2018 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of JIAWEI LIU find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. Rachel L. Bailey, Ph.D., Chair Myiah J. Hutchens, Ph.D. Jay D. Hmielowski, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Though I have been thinking about how to write my dissertation acknowledgements for a long time, it is still hard to believe I am officially writing it. It takes a long time and lots of effort to get a PhD degree, and I have had many ups and downs in the years leading to this goal. Happy days I see my progress; stressful days I feel discouraged and question my ability to do research. These trials have made me who I am, and I know I would not have survived without my mentors, colleagues, families, and friends. I would first like to thank my advisor Dr. Rachel Bailey. This dissertation would not have been possible without her. Words cannot express how thankful and grateful I am to have her as my advisor, but I want to let her know she changed the way I see and do science. Her enthusiasm and dedication toward research and training students shaped me as a researcher. I’m so lucky to have met her at Indiana University, and followed her to Washington State University four years ago. Meeting her is the most fortuitous thing to happen to since I came to the United State. Not only has she influenced my education, but she has made me a better person. I know I will always see her as my role model, and will think of her when my motivation or spirits flag. I wish her the very best of luck at her new job in Florida and cannot wait to hear about all the good things life has in store for her. I will always have a spot in my heart for the time we spent together at Indiana University and Washington State University. My enormous gratitude also goes to my dissertation committee members Dr. Myiah Hutchens and Dr. Jay Hmielowski. They have given me their support, guidance, and advice, not only on my dissertation, but also on my job search. Dr. Myiah Hutchens taught me how to do data analysis and, most importantly, that I should always treat data with respect. Also, I will never forget how energetic and passionate she looks in her Media and Society class at 8 o’clock iii in the morning. Her enthusiasm and seriousness for undergraduate education will always encourage me as I attempt to become a great teacher in the future. Dr. Jay Hmielowski helped me with my dissertation data collection, without which I may still be collecting data to this day. I also feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work with him on a research project in my third year. His diligence, efficiency, and care toward research make me realize what kind of researcher I want and need to be. I have benefited greatly from the knowledge and insights of both of my committee members, and they have showed me examples of great researchers and teachers. Without their help at key moments over the last four years, I would not have had such a smooth experience completing my work and finishing my degree. My growth would not have been so enjoyable without my past and current colleagues and friends in the Murrow College of Communication. I thank Tianjiao Wang for her advice and support during my dissertation writing and job search. I will never forget the time we spent in the Communication Emotion and Cognition Lab, and I also want to thank her for being there to cheer me up even after she graduated from Washington State University. I am happy she is doing well at Bradley University and hope to see her soon. I want to thank Yanni Ma and Shuang Liu, for helping me and encouraging me when I was down. I would not be able to survive without their tremendous support in this last semester. I will always have the best wishes in my heart for them. I also want to thank Zhaomeng Niu. I feel so lucky that I met her in Pullman. I want to let her know that she has brought me so much happiness and joy during these four years, and I wish her all the success in life that she deserves. No acknowledgement would be complete without including my family. I want to thank my mother. She has been a constant force of good in my life, and she makes me believe she will always be on my side no matter what happens. She teaches me how important it is to be iv independent, and how to stay positive and strong. She inspires and motivates me to make every day more meaningful. I want to thank my father. My father has always set high education goals for me, but he also tries his best to comfort me whenever I am discouraged. His expectations for me have motivated me to work hard and make progress. It brings me joy knowing this dissertation will make him proud. To both of my parents, I want to say that no one will ever know the strength of my love for you. I am the luckiest person in the world to have you as my parents. Lastly, I want to thank hamburgers, fries, shakes, quesadillas, and pizza. Though I know fast food is not healthy, it really has helped to reduce my stress and nurture my emotional health during difficult times when I was working on this dissertation. v “WHY CAN’T WE STOP EATING?”: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE PROCESSING OF AND REACTIVITY TOWARD CUES IN FOOD ADVERTISEMENTS Abstract by Jiawei Liu, Ph.D. Washington State University July 2018 Chair: Rachel L. Bailey The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the relationship between the presence of different types of food cues (i.e., social cues, use cues) in food advertisements and subsequent motivational, affective and psychophysiological responding, memory, and behavioral intentions. In general, this dissertation has three goals. The first is to examine how different types of food cues affect automatic cognitive resource allocation toward encoding and storing food ad information. The second goal is to examine if the food ads containing multiple types of cues elicit stronger, additive, affective and cognitive responding compared to other types of food advertisements. The third goal is to investigate how the presence of different types of food cues in food advertising encourage buying tendencies toward the food products. Results indicated that the addition of use and group cues to food ads elicit stronger appetitive motivational activation that yield greater cognitive efforts, arousal, positive emotional feelings, and approach responses, including purchase intentions. Cognitive processing results indicated that the addition of use cues vi has more impact on resources required of a message while social cues have more impact on resources allocated. Implications and future research are discussed. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. vi LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................... x LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 1 Overview ................................................................................................................... 1 Contribution to theory................................................................................................ 4 Contribution for practice ............................................................................................ 7 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ........................................................... 10 Obesity and The Power of Food Marketing .............................................................. 10 Cue Reactivity in Substance Addiction Research ..................................................... 14 Cue Reactivity in Food Research ............................................................................. 18 Assessing Dynamic Affective and Cognitive Processing .......................................... 26 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS .................................................................................. 41 Experiment 1 ........................................................................................................... 41 Experiment 2 ........................................................................................................... 52 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS ...................................................................................... 59 Emotion ................................................................................................................... 59 Resource Allocation (STRTs), Encoding, and Storage Performance......................... 78 Heart Rate ............................................................................................................... 94 viii Later Behavioral Intentions .....................................................................................