Does advertising influence children as young as three? Researchers at Stanford U

Question

Does advertising influence children as young as three? Researchers at Stanford University conducted a taste test with preschoolers. Each preschooler tasted two identical samples of five food items (hamburger, french fries, chicken nuggets, baby carrots, and apple slices). For each item, the children tasted one sample wrapped in a McDonald's wrapper and the other sample in an identical, but unbranded, wrapper. Some children tasted the sample in the branded wrapper first, others tasted the sample in the unbranded wrapper first. Consistenty for all food items, the majority of preschoolers preferred the food in the McDonald's wrapper over the one in the unbranded wrapper, even though both samples were identical. [Source Robinson, T. N., et al. "Effects of fast food branding on young children's taste preferences." Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 161 (2007): 792-797] The researchers found that the preschoolers who watched more television or ate more often at McDonald's were more likely to prefer the food wrapped in a McDonald's wrapper. However, is it possible that the children were attracted to the branded wrapper because it had more writing and colors on it, rather than because they recognized the McDonald's logo? You decide to conduct a similar experiment among 83 preschoolers using identical samples of carrots. In this experiment, you wrap one of the identical samples in a wrapper that is colorfully marked and lettered with a description of the contents and the other in an unmarked, unlabeled wrapper of the same size, shape, and material. Suppose in your experiment, 29 of the 83 children preferred the carrots in the wrapper that is colorfully marked and lettered with a description of the contents (the marked wrapper). You use a statistical computing package to conduct a chi-square test for goodness of fit. The following tables consist of the output. Carrots Marked Unmarked Total Observed N Expected N Residual -12.5 12.5 29 54 83 41.5 41.5 Test Statistics Carrots 7.53 Chi-Square df Asymp. Sig 006 The following is a section of the write-up of your results. Using the information in the output, fill in the blanks with the appropriate words, phrases, or values that correctly describe the results of your study. Use a significance level of = .05 In the sample, preferred the identical food item in the unmarked wrapper. This difference in preference significant, X2(- -' , n = 83) =

Explanation / Answer

Result:

In the sample, 54 preferred the identical food item in the unmarked wrapper. The difference in preference is significant, 2 (1, n=83) = 7.53, p=0.006.

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