Study On Effects Of FAST FOOD CULTURE On Implicit Attitude And Decision Behavior

Cultural infiltrates and influences people's behavior. With the recent influx of fast food restaurants such as McDonalds and KFC in China,"fast food culture" is becoming more influential and changing the lifestyles of Chinese citizens. There are already a number of studies that show the concentration of fast food restaurants is directly related to obesity; the cause of this phenomenon is not because of increased consumption, but an increased sense of urgency that decreases exercise (Maddock,2004; Pereira, Kartashov, Ebbeling, Van Horn, Slattery, Jacobs,&Ludwig,2005). Studies related to "behavioral priming" prove that environmental cues will trigger certain social behaviors (Aarts&Dijksterhuis,2005; Frank&Gilovich,1988; Zhong&Leonardelli,2008; Fitzsimons, Chartrand,&Fitzsimons,2008). Studies within China also show youths are the most active participants of "fast food culture" due to age and psychological characteristics (Chen Ran,2006); schools thus become the source for spreading this "fast food culture". According to China's central propaganda agency's youth studies department, the findings of one questionnaire of2710middle school students show that most students wish to spend the least amount of time to achieve the most significant results. Expert's interpretation of this phenomenon signifies that as the Chinese economy grows,"fast food culture" also grows into various forms that penetrate into people's daily lives; slowly changing and shaping our "fastness" values.Based on the above common social phenomenon combined with scientific research data, the impact of the fast food culture on people's behavior patterns is confirmed. However, what are the psychological mechanisms behind the behavioral changes brought on by fast food culture? We believe that the fast food concept automatically triggers the behavior of "time saving". In other words, the fast food concept influences behavior in the subconscious level, bringing about an individual's "fast" and "save" values. Thus, patterns of behavior changes are based on the automatic occurrences of value-oriented attitude in people. This study is based on two levels-the impact of fast food culture on people's attitude and the impact of these changes in people's behavior patterns; we will then verify fast food culture does indeed affects people's unconscious psychological mechanisms. Specific experiment procedure is divided into three parts, four series:The first experiment detects the subject's basic attitude towards fast food implicitly and explicitly. The second experiment added the element of time pressure. The third experiment utilizes the delay of gratification task and reading task to detect unconscious penetration and impact of the fast food culture on individual decision and non-decision behavior patterns change. Based on these experiments, the following conclusions were found:(1) Based on just fast food itself, there was no difference in the subjects'implicit and explicit attitude:food type chosen was based on rationality.(2) With the added time pressure, the subjects' attitudes were consistent with their original attitude explicitly, and reversed implicitly.(3) Fast-food culture can influence individual behavior patterns change:With the assist of fast food logos, subjects in the delay of gratification tasks and reading tasks showed a pattern of behavior "speed up" tendencies.In conclusion, these experiments confirmed that fast food culture, at the attitude and behavior level does indeed influence and change individual values and lifestyles.