by Aimee Keenan-Greene

Do kids judge food by the packaging?

A new study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine says cartoon advertising can make a child think their cereal tastes better.

In this experimental study, children viewed 1 of 4 professionally created cereal boxes and tasted a "new" cereal. The boxes had various characters and a healthy or sugary name.

Children who saw a popular media character on the box reported liking the cereal more (mean [SD], 4.70 [0.86]) than those who viewed a box with no character on it (4.16 [1.24]). Those who were told the cereal was named 'Healthy Bits' liked the taste more (mean [SD], 4.65 [0.84]) than children who were told it was named 'Sugar Bits' (4.22 [1.27]). 

Character presence was particularly influential on taste assessments for participants who were told the cereal was named 'Sugar Bits'.

Eighty children participated (mean [SD] age, 5.6 [0.96] years; 53 percent girls) alongside their parents or guardians.

Children rated the cereal's taste on a 5-point smiley face scale (1, really do not like; 5, really like). 

Researchers concluded messages encouraging healthy eating may resonate with young children, but the presence of licensed characters on packaging potentially overrides children's assessments of nutritional merit.