一詞日曆：這個心理學花招讓美國年輕人戒掉垃圾食品
2019.05.22
週三 Wednesday
rebel [rɪ'bɛl]
v. 反叛；反抗；造反
圖片來源：視覺中國
How do we prevent young people from eating too much junk food and exposing themselves to the associated health risks? A simple but effective psychological strategy looks to be the key, according to new research.
我們如何阻止年輕人食用過量垃圾食品、使他們免於接觸到相關的健康風險呢？一項新研究指出，一個簡單卻有效的心理策略有望成爲關鍵。
The genius is it's all about tapping into teens' natural tendency to rebel: by pointing out how well-funded marketing campaigns are designed to get all of us hooked on junk foods, researchers were able to get the young people to actually shift their eating choices.
這個特殊方法就是利用青少年叛逆的天性：研究人員向青少年指明，那些營銷活動投入大量資金就是爲了讓我們所有人都迷上垃圾食品；這樣一來，研究人員們得以讓年輕人真正地改變他們的飲食選擇。
The technique works better than simply giving teens information on healthy eating, the study shows, leveraging their innate resistance to being tricked or coerced into something – a resistance that can make a real difference in terms of diet.
這項研究表明，比起爲青少年提供健康飲食的信息，這個方法更有效。它充分利用青少年對於被欺騙或被迫接受某項事物的內在牴觸，而這種抗拒確實能影響他們的飲食選擇。
"One of the most exciting things is that we got kids to have a more negative immediate gut reaction to junk food and junk food marketing, and a more positive immediate gut reaction to healthy foods," says behavioural scientist Christopher J. Bryan from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
“其中最令人興奮的一點就是我們使孩子們對垃圾食品和垃圾食品營銷的直接反應變得更加牴觸，而且使他們更加接受健康食品，”芝加哥大學布斯商學院行爲學家克里斯托弗·J·布萊恩說道。
"Food marketing is deliberately designed to create positive emotional associations with junk food, to connect it with feelings of happiness and fun," says Bryan. "What we've done is turn that around on the food marketers by exposing this manipulation to teenagers, triggering their natural strong aversion to being controlled by adults."
“食品營銷的目的就是故意營造出與垃圾食品之間的正向情感交流，把它與幸福快樂的感受聯繫在一起，”布萊恩說，“我們要做的就是把矛頭指向食品營銷者，揭露他們操控青少年，激發他們對被成年人操控的天生的強烈抗拒。”
"If we could make more kids aware of that, it might make a real difference."
“如果我們能讓更多孩子意識到這些，或許確實會起到重要作用。”
今日詞彙
rebel [rɪ'bɛl]
v. 反叛；反抗；造反
常見用法：to rebel against sb./sth.
Children always rebel against their parents and teachers.孩子總是同父母和老師對着幹。
叛逆期的青少年不好惹，讓他往左，他偏往右。這一反叛天性卻被研究者們順勢利用。這樣一來也好，至少他們不會又叛逆又肥胖。
