oa Merkfiguurtjes stimuleren de gezonde keuze van kleuters via affectieve reactiemechanismen

Brand Characters Increase the Appeal of the Healthy Choice Among Preschoolers via Affective Mechanisms

This study explored how character-product congruence influences preschoolers’ healthy product choice via two types of affective responses, their automatic and elaborate affective responses. In addition, we investigated whether the two affective responses mediate the relation between character-product congruence and product choice independently from each other or successively. In a repeated measures design, 166 preschoolers (4-6 years) were exposed to five character-product combinations that differed in degree of congruence. We measured children’s automatic affective response toward these combinations using a time-constrained task, and their elaborate affective response using a non-constrained task. Our findings showed that the two affective responses successively mediate the relation between congruence and choice: character-product congruence initially triggered a positive automatic affective response, which, in turn, stimulated more positive elaborate affective responses, including greater product choice.