Renewable bites: How energy sources shape food healthiness judgments

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cris.lastimport.scopus2025-12-17T04:16:07Z
dc.abstract.enPublic opinion increasingly associates nuclear energy with negative environmental outcomes, but can this perception influence how people judge food? This study examines whether the perceived naturalness of energy sources used to manufacture kitchen appliances affects the perceived healthiness of foods prepared with those appliances. Food prepared with appliances manufactured using nuclear energy was consistently perceived as less healthy than food prepared with appliances manufactured without any specified energy source (Studies 1–3; = 1,939), with this negative nuclear effect also emerging when compared against a wind energy condition in the most well-powered, preregistered experiment (Study 3). Further, the effect of nuclear energy on healthiness perceptions was indirect through perceived risk (Study 3), implying that nuclear energy evoked greater perceived risk, which ultimately reduced perceived healthiness. This work extends contagion theory by showing that perceptions of unnaturalness can spread through abstract and distant links—such as energy sources used in manufacturing—to shape judgments in unrelated domains. The persistence of negative contagion effects associated with nuclear energy, but the more modest positive effects from wind energy, aligns with the principle of negativity dominance in contagion research. These results suggest that consumer resistance to nuclear energy may stem, in part, from naturalness perceptions.
dc.affiliationWydział Psychologii we Wrocławiu
dc.affiliationInstytut Psychologii
dc.contributor.authorFolwarczny, Michał
dc.contributor.authorGąsiorowska, Agata
dc.contributor.authorSigurdsson, Valdimar
dc.contributor.authorOtterbring, Tobias
dc.date.access2025-09-10
dc.date.accessioned2025-09-12T06:56:16Z
dc.date.available2025-09-12T06:56:16Z
dc.date.created2025-08-12
dc.date.issued2025-09-10
dc.description.abstract<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Public opinion increasingly associates nuclear energy with negative environmental outcomes, but can this perception influence how people judge food? This study examines whether the perceived naturalness of energy sources used to manufacture kitchen appliances affects the perceived healthiness of foods prepared with those appliances. Food prepared with appliances manufactured using nuclear energy was consistently perceived as less healthy than food prepared with appliances manufactured without any specified energy source (Studies 1–3; <jats:inline-formula> <jats:alternatives> <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mime-subtype="png" xlink:href="S1930297525100120_inline1.png"/> <jats:tex-math> $N_{\text {total}}$ </jats:tex-math> </jats:alternatives> </jats:inline-formula> = 1,939), with this negative nuclear effect also emerging when compared against a wind energy condition in the most well-powered, preregistered experiment (Study 3). Further, the effect of nuclear energy on healthiness perceptions was indirect through perceived risk (Study 3), implying that nuclear energy evoked greater perceived risk, which ultimately reduced perceived healthiness. This work extends contagion theory by showing that perceptions of unnaturalness can spread through abstract and distant links—such as energy sources used in manufacturing—to shape judgments in unrelated domains. The persistence of negative contagion effects associated with nuclear energy, but the more modest positive effects from wind energy, aligns with the principle of negativity dominance in contagion research. These results suggest that consumer resistance to nuclear energy may stem, in part, from naturalness perceptions.</jats:p>
dc.description.accesstimeat_publication
dc.description.physical1-20
dc.description.versionfinal_published
dc.description.volume20
dc.identifier.doi10.1017/jdm.2025.10012
dc.identifier.issn1930-2975
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/1776
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/judgment-and-decision-making/article/renewable-bites-how-energy-sources-shape-food-healthiness-judgments/3E1D4CB2BE1F6FF866F0B3D00A8BB5CF
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationpsychologia
dc.rightsCC-BY
dc.rights.questionYes_rights
dc.share.articleOPEN_JOURNAL
dc.subject.encontagion
dc.subject.ensympathetic magic
dc.subject.ennatural preference
dc.subject.ennuclear energy
dc.subject.enfood healthiness
dc.swps.sciencecloudsend
dc.titleRenewable bites: How energy sources shape food healthiness judgments
dc.title.journalJudgment and Decision Making
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle