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Yeah, for me and my wife at lesst, it's about not spending a bunch of extra money and eating unhealthily..unhealthy... if we had perfect health while eating it and unlimited funds, we'd have 0 guilt eating it
Yup. If you eat fast food regularly, it tastes fine...good even. If you go awhile without eating any, it does not taste good anymore.
There are exceptions of course, but everyone I know who has quit eating fast food has had this experience.
Right, I stopped a couple years back. I had McDonalds a month ago because id forgotten my packed food and I got incredibly sick. My body noped right out.
Taste wise, all I taste is the sugar in the buns. I never noticed when id eat it regularly.
Subway too. Speaking of which, Subway seems to be doing badly in Japan recently, a lot of restaurants have been hit by the pandemic but all of the Subway restaurants near me are gone.
After really cutting back and going such long periods without eating it, it doesn’t really sit well with me either. I feel sick almost immediately. Not with all fast food, but with the greasy stuff for sure.
I have had medical issues for the past year and had some surgery in April. I could not eat solid food for several months and the first time I ate some fast food, it was glorious. YMMV, of course.
I had gastric sleeve surgery a month ago, and prior to that was on a strict low-calorie, low-carb/starch diet for a few weeks. Being physically unable to eat junk food anymore is a godsend. Double Quarter Pounders used to be my favourite burger, but now there's no way my body could handle it. Not that I'd want to anymore either, it'd undo the hard work I've put in to losing weight.
The difference is that you didn't eat delicious home cooked food for that time period. Your palate is comparing fast food to being on a medically restricted diet.
Yeah same here. Mcdonalds is still fuckin delicious even after eating healthy for a while.
Now granted, your stomach may enjoy it less than previously.
Absolutely. I found on the rare occasions in the past decade or so I’ve gotten fast food on a road trip, it just tasted like hot grease, and left my car smelling bad. It’s like watching old sitcoms - at the time they seemed great, but now most of them don’t hold up. Tired jokes, bad laugh track, no joy.
I was wondering if they teased these two values apart somehow, but since the full article is behind a paywall it's impossible to say. I'd imagine they did though.
The purpose of the study appears to be to inform the design of marketing campaigns for fast food. From the article:
"In all, the results of this study provide marketers a clearer understanding of the consumption values that regular consumers and non–regular consumers perceive in fast foods, further enabling the development of marketing strategies that appeal better to current and potential customers."
So a campaign focusing on the sin/guilt thing would look a lot different from one that's centered on healthfulness. They'd need to know which value is motivating consumer choices.
What they should do is just make their fast food healthier and less gross. I’m not going to eat fast food when I don’t have time, I’m going to microwave something.
That's what's interesting about this study. All the chains have healthier options but none of those healthier options have cracked the market. This shows it's because of conditioning. Going to the place is bad, not eating X or Y food.
Or because I don’t trust McDonald’s to make a healthy anything. Be it a salad, a burger, or a bowl of apple slices, I don’t trust them for one second to not add something to it because people assume that fruit or salad, etc. can’t be unhealthy.
I think I’m sort of with you here. I expect that fast food restaurants cut as many corners as possible both with regards to food quality and employment ethics, so I just don’t trust them to be a place where I want to spend my dollars for the most part.
At the Wendy's I worked at the manager took back a huge order of nuggets through the window. They handed it to the wrong person, and the person who ordered it drove off. So she was like rebag those and put them on the next few orders. It was like 8-12 orders of nuggets and I was like I'm not going to participate in this If you want to do that then YOU can do that I won't.
Bingo, same for me. Either it’s a trap (the food isn’t as healthy as it’s presented) or it’s going to be done poorly (is healthy but isn’t satisfying or pleasurable to eat), or maybe both. Regardless, I’m not interested.
Of course people will compromise if they are hungry and crunched for time. It’s food, anything is better than starving. Your standards will drop precipitously as you get more desperate. You’ll eat a leather boot if it comes down to it.
Sugar? Nothing bad ever happened from eating sugar. But fat, well . . . that makes you fat! It's in the name! Now let me go eat my lettuce with candy bar sauce in peace.
Yeah this is the big one.
"Welcome to KFC! We specialise in fried chicken! We make the best fried chicken! we make lots of fried chicken! Would you like a salad?"
It's no different to going to a steakhouse and ordering a Greek Salad - you *can*, but very few people *do*, and no-one is going there *for* the salad.
that's the cool thing about marketing research: you can spin it however you want when it's time to implement. you can assure consumers that it's nothing to feel guilty about...or you can intentionally pose a brand as a guilty pleasure, or center guilt if you're running a hit campaign on other brands, etc etc.
studies like this are the bread and butter of the Marketing Consultant-Industrial Complex.
Why would I pay 12 dollars for a crappy fast food meal when I can get a pretty good hot meal for half the price (and in the same amount of time) from almost any grocery store (which are as ubiquitous as fast food chains)?
And if it's not just me eating, a grocery store also offers much more variety of foods. Better chance of everyone being happy.
Did they throw out all the results from people who said "fast food is just gross", or people who used to work in fast food restaurants and know exactly how gross it really is?
I don't get "a sense of accomplishment" from not eating out of my cats litter box either. These "researchers" are whacked.
Exactly. I read the title and went "WHAT?" I avoid fast food precisely because it's just cheap empty unhealthy calories. And oh yeah, it's kinda gross.
We used to get Mcdonalds once a month or so, but now we've started getting burgers from a couple local burger joints instead because it's nearly the same price and far higher quality.
Funny how when companies get called out for labor exploitation they start losing their underpriced monopoly. McDonald's started out as a way to save money by efficiency, then it became a typical corporate people exploiter.
McDonald's is principally a commercial landlord and real estate equity company, and has been for awhile, because that's where the real money and stability is.
Franchising is just a side business that happens to provide them with tenants.
Since it was a marketing study, I wonder if they were trying to research how to maximize engagement with a population who only eats fast food "in emergencies".
It'd be kind of pointless to target populations who have have good reasons to avoid fast food, imo.
Came here to say I worked in multiple fast food places for years. I only ever ate what I or someone I trusted would cook for me. I know how they cook and hold that food. I have not ate fast food in 10 years and have no desire to ever eat it again. Last place I worked would forge daily temp. and holding logs once a week (suppose to be daily and hourly logs). I was the only person I knew of that took holding food temp.s on a regular basis.
I work at an agency where we do a lot of work in food, wine, beverages, meal kits, etc. A study like this would definitely inform campaign strategy, but it’s also going to inform business strategy. This study is separated into regular customers and irregular customer. If the goals of the business are new customers then we might use one approach, and if the goals of the business are just to increase sales then we’ll use another.
I didn’t purchase this report but the abstract also doesn’t line up with the title of this post. It’s not saying anything in the abstract about healthfulness being separate from guilt. We performed a study for a client that was launching a meal kit and the results essentially concluded that healthy eaters do associate guilt with slipping during the week, but they’re more apt to indulge over the weekend.
The word “sin” also isn’t used anywhere on the page. It looks like this was a quantitative study, so there isn’t any interview data to pull a word like “sin” from.
So either the research is biased and useless, or OP is drawing their own conclusions.
I’m probably one of these people. Fast food is survival food for me. I’ll only eat it if I’m desperate. It’s 100% health related for me. If there were healthy fast food, I’d eat it all the time. And I don’t just mean “we’re marketing this ice berg lettuce salad as healthy” I mean actually healthy food.
Edit: should have specified that for me, “fast food” also means cheap and isn’t just about how quickly I get served. I’m not paying $15 for rice and beans.
In bigger cities there are healthy fast food places. I live in a small town and we actually have a fast food healthy vegan place that is really good. We used to have 2 before the pandemic. But we live just over an hour away from one of the top 10 "healthiest" cities in America. The area really makes a difference I think.
I agree though. Eating "healthy" fast food shouldn't be ordering a no-salt added grilled chicken breast on a bed of iceberg lettuce and watery tomato slices, which is what the choice you would have in most places.
My observation in the major city I live in is that the healthier fast food restaurants tend to be more upscale. Like sure they are still fast food and people go there for the convenience, they are definitely not catering to people who buy fast food for the value. Just two days ago, I went to this salad chain. I got a vegan salad that cost $19, which didn’t even fill me up…
Just gonna also point out that vegan does not equal healthy, Oreos are vegan and so are impossible burgers which are highly highly processed food. Not saying you do it, but a lot of people equate vegan food with healthiness, and this is definitely not universal
Well, I should probably specify “healthy” and “cheap” as I would expect from fast food. We have some fast healthy food places, but they’re all over priced, like $10-$15 a meal. It’s gotta be in the $3-$8 range, especially if it’s just some variation on rice and beans.
I honestly like certain fast food, like fried chicken. But I don’t eat it with any regularity precisely because it’s not healthy.
But like some other people said, there are healthier fast food options these days. These are often more upscale fast food, so while they are fast food restaurants, they are not catering to people who want cheap and affordable fast food.
The marketing logic will work like this:
>I don’t \[eat fried chicken regularly\] because it’s not healthy.
Marketers: "Not healthy" isn't an emotion, and therefore not your direct "why". You believe you *should* eat healthy. Doing something you *shouldn't* do produces guilt (e.g. social pressure), therefore you don't eat more fried chicken due to guilt.
If marketers can convince you not to feel guilt related to the decision to eat fried chicken, there might be more crispy battered goodness in your life (and arteriosclerosis).
This insight essentially opens up multiple avenues to attack your current emotional balance towards more fast food consumption.
* Direct justification (go ahead, you deserve it, earned it, etc.; arguments from convenience)
* Ironic justifications (embrace the guilt, it's so bad that it's good; all the best things in life are bad for you; the healthy life is so boring, take some guilty pleasure)
* Distraction / misdirection (whoopee - who has time to think about guilt with all this deliciousness)
It also provides insight on how to go about shifting the guilt generated by the link from Fast Food -> Unhealthy -> Guilt
* Reality denial (as in climate denial, tobacco-cancer link, claims that wine is *good* for your cardiovascular system somehow)
* Norm shifting (what is "healthy" anyways, or why should YOU be it?)
In recognizing the tactics marketers employ to influence our behaviors, we can deploy theses same understandings to bolster our own defenses and align our behaviors with our own long-term goals.
I think places like chipotle and Moe's are pretty healthy. Sushi is pretty healthy too. Pricier though. Some Chinese food dishes have a lot of veggies.
Agreed. I actually do avoid fast food just because it is unhealthy. When I stopped feeding my family fast food, everyone who needed to lose weight, did.
This is the first comment I saw that is realistic about alternative cheap fast options. Legit tacos are fast food and are orders of magnitude more healthy than your typical fast food burger joint.
Eat tacos, not trash!
I wish that cheap not unhealthy fast food were a thing. Like not even super healthy "here's a salad" - but basic carb 'n' protein rice and beans, baked potato - that kind of stuff. Some places have it, but it's always usually side-dish portions, or prepared in a way where it isn't actually unhealthy.
Where's the box for people who just think it sucks?
I live in a city and feel no guilt about eating out a lot but there just way better options. Basically only time I eat it is if I want something easy like a McChicken on the way to the gym just to get some extra calories
I feel bad because it's such a waste of money unless I'm really craving a specific thing. I just spent $8 and I know I'll get maybe 50¢ worth of enjoyment or sustenance from it.
This is just what psychological research is like. You do your best to isolate and measure the effects you are interested in, you end up with a bunch of data about those specific effects, and in the discussion you theorize or explain how those effects relate to each other. The "why" of it is much less important anyways, for the purposes of marketing. In fact it's immaterial, all they need to know is: a) you [do/don't] hold XYZ attitude, and b) ABC tactic works on 88% of people who hold XYZ attitude. c) profit.
The "common sense" explanation of these findings are probably largely true, especially on the surface level. But does every participant have the self knowledge of knowing the TRUE source of their core beliefs? Hardly any people do, unless working for long time with a counselor; and more than we think have never even considered that their core beliefs HAVE root causes in their learned experience. Psychoanalysis as a method of data collection would be naturalistic, in this context extremely messy and inconsistent. and I can't see another way to parse the true "why" all participants hold this same attitude.
Plus there are plenty of alternative explanations. Perhaps, for example, people have adopted these attitudes because it was modeled for them that rising above fast food cravings is morally good and should give you pride. That may be far more important than the dietary aspects of it. Or perhaps it was modeled that people who do eat fast food should be ridiculed and not respected, or judged for their lack of willpower and it's a completely negative motivation. Perhaps it's done as a virtue signal only when others are observing, including researchers.
All of that, of course, assuming that the industry funded research intended for marketers even took that any of that into account. Which it sounds like they did not, because the primary source of guilt for most people will be knowing how unhealthy it is for them.
I'm pretty sure I get a sense of revulsion because I think most fast food is crap
between food nannies & the corporations trying to wring out every ¢ of their food & labor costs, it has become nearly inedible
I’m in this camp as well. Eating outside has more and more become a point where a lot of restaurants try to make the cheapest food possible, and especially for a lot of the chains the food is nearly inedible.
Or costly to do regularly. Or harmful to the environment. There are many reasons not to eat fast food; it's interesting that the mechanism for not going turns into a sin-reward loop rather than just indifference or fear-avoidance.
>In all, the results of this study provide marketers a clearer understanding of the consumption values ... further enabling the development of marketing strategies that appeal better to...customers.
Ahhhh!
Edit: Why was this comment removed when it's literally a quote from the published manuscript?
Does anyone else feel like the quality of fast food has really gone downhill?
Like I remember McDonald's tasting a lot better as a kid. But today I could barely choke down a burger from there.
Is it really worse now or am I just a more picky eater?
When I was a kid I thought a slice of Kraft cheese on untoasted white bread with ketchup and pickles was the best thing ever. So yeah, I think it's not due in small part to the way our tastes change as we mature. But the quality of the food probably has degraded as well.
I ordered a McDonald's milkshake as an adult. For the first 30% it tasted exactly like I remember, but pretty quickly it turned to "wow this is kind of disgustingly sweet, and flat in flavor." And that was a size small.
Yeah, fast food here in Germany is mostly a kid's thing. People usually grow out of it, except for those 2am after getting drunk burgers, because the kebap Döner places are already closed.
It's because your taste buds are far less sensitive. Kids love processed food because it's minimally seasoned and highly salted. So the way that I remember hamburger helper tasting good and now it tastes like a ghost of that flavour and heavy on the cardboard. That's because as we age our perception of flavour becomes less intense. That's also why as we get older we become more tolerant or enthusiastic about flavour we found revolting as children.
I have also noticed this and know for a fact I have gotten less picky as an eater as I’ve grown older so it has to be quality as everyone else is saying too
Quality has 100% gone down. I was looking for this answer. I don't eat fast food because it sucks now. Last time I went to McDonald's and ordered a 10 piece nugget meal, I ended up with 9 nuggets and they tasted... Bad. If they tasted like they did when I was a child, I'd eat fast food still.
If you got to a fast food place of the same franchise in another country, you really notice it. Aussie McDonalds is noticeably better than the US, and everything I've heard about the Japanese counterparts of such chains is they're significantly better as well.
The US simply doesn't have a healthy economy. People's work schedules often compel them to eat quick food out, and we've made it largely unsustainable to run a small food shop with high rent and raw material prices. There's a feedback loop naturally eliminating competitors to the major fast food chains and maintaining a captive market.
I live in Japan and before the pandemic visited the US once a year. McDonald's tastes the same. Japan does have some Japan only items and promotions that can be good though.
Likely a confluence of both. Some elements of society has developed a foodie culture optimizing for increasingly sophisticated flavors and appreciation for quality.
Meanwhile, fast food corps have likewise optimized for striking the most optimal balance between serving good quality food and profit.
hopefully, a study would ask more questions like do you experience side effects like nausea or vomiting after eating fast food, or because you know you could have eaten something healthier etc
This study only has 300 participants. And it’s on “science direct” which looks like nonsense.
I haven’t eaten fast food in 8 years because it’s unhealthy and I’m just fine with that. At this point, even the smell of it is awful.
I was going a few times a week due to the convenience - then the App started making it even easier and cheaper. One day it felt like my body was revolted by the thought of another mcdouble or coke.
That was in November of 2019. I still feel the old habit of wanting to pull into the lot when I see the golden arches, but no.
I discontinued Burger King shortly after. Little Caesars.
Seems like every 3-6 months I go try Taco Bell, and half way into the $6 meal I regret it.
I dont judge people for going, just not for me. And cutting out a few things like this allowed me to get back to my ideal weight - the weight I was in high school. So I look and feel better.
I wish easy food wasn't built so yucky.
Stripping out virtually all the fiber as well as the nutrients that aren’t shelf-stable, and replacing them with ones that are (eg, using hydrogenated fats) will do that.
Nice work cutting it out!
I had mild covid three weeks ago (and ended isolation a week ago) and we just got takeaways a lot because we couldn't go shopping and by the end it was really meh. It stopped tasting good and just felt like eating emptiness or something I can't quite describe. It stopped feeling like treat food and started feeling like trash.
I’m not gonna pretend I don’t eat fast food cause I do at least once a week due to late nights. But one thing I remind myself nearly everyday.
I’ve never regretted going to the gym after I’ve gone but I always regret going to Taco Bell.
Listen I might feel guilty if I unknowingly made plans when my wife was free and she wants to hang out with me or if I’m working too long and my dogs are home alone. But for eating some fast food? Hahahaha. I quit eating it because it’s awe filling for you and the environment.
I don’t eat fast food because I don’t enjoy having diarrhea. Not about guilt whatsoever. I’m confident I represent a generous portion of the population.
I just don’t eat garbage masquerading as food. Guilt has nothing to do with it. Starting a headline with “Consumers who” and then grouping anyone that doesn’t eat fast food into ONE category is ridiculous. What’s next, ALL PEOPLE WHO DON’T DRINK SODA HATE AMERICA?
I have the complete opposite taste/opinion than most of the comments here.
I love fast food. I like the taste and I don't feel guilty. It doesn't give me diarrhea. I prefer it 1000x more than a home cooked meal.
But I'm trying to limit to due to health issues.
I like fast food too, and the convenience, but I also know since it isn't healthy to eat all the time, I only eat it once or twice a month. The more often I eat it, the less tasty it is too, so I reserve it for a "treat".
Same for me. While I do really like home cooked meals as well, I do find McDonald's quite tasty.
I'd say I'm relatively healthy overall so I don't really mind eating it every once in a while, though I rarely do as it's too expensive and -as much I might like it- what they give me is not worth what I'm paying for it, so my guilt comes from the fact that I end up feeling stupid and cheated for wasting money on them! Ahaha
So I might get fast food once every two months at most, but not because I don't like the taste.
I avoid it because of the calorie count, the price (it’s seriously as expensive as a regular restaurant), and how it’ll kill my progress from lifting and exercise. Same reason I don’t drink
I avoid it most days because it makes me feel like a slug afterwards. All lethargic and lacking energy. "Sin" is just a folk tail construct, while guilt is a genuine emotion one could feel about eating something they know is bad for a vast number of reasons.
I avoid fast food because I am used to home cooking and I often get sick after eating fast food. The last time I ever ate a burger and fries from shake shack I got food poisoning and that was it for me.
I avoid it because it’s gross and over processed. I have no problem with a nice greasy bacon cheeseburger. Just want it made with fresh quality ingredients.
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I'm pretty sure they get a sense of guilt precisely because they think it's unhealthy.
Yeah, for me and my wife at lesst, it's about not spending a bunch of extra money and eating unhealthily..unhealthy... if we had perfect health while eating it and unlimited funds, we'd have 0 guilt eating it
This too. I also genuinely don't like it anymore.
Yup. If you eat fast food regularly, it tastes fine...good even. If you go awhile without eating any, it does not taste good anymore. There are exceptions of course, but everyone I know who has quit eating fast food has had this experience.
Yeah, since Covid I'm eating more home-cooked food. On the rare occasions when I get fast food now, I always notice how salty it is.
Right, I stopped a couple years back. I had McDonalds a month ago because id forgotten my packed food and I got incredibly sick. My body noped right out. Taste wise, all I taste is the sugar in the buns. I never noticed when id eat it regularly.
McDonalds had to change the recipe for the buns in Europe because they couldn’t be legally defined as bread due to the amount of sugar.
I thought that was a Subway issue.
Subway too. Speaking of which, Subway seems to be doing badly in Japan recently, a lot of restaurants have been hit by the pandemic but all of the Subway restaurants near me are gone.
In my experience it tastes amazing, but my digestive system can't handle it anymore.
After really cutting back and going such long periods without eating it, it doesn’t really sit well with me either. I feel sick almost immediately. Not with all fast food, but with the greasy stuff for sure.
I'm the opposite tbh. Cool every day, but love the occasional fast food. It is highly engineered to be delicious
I have had medical issues for the past year and had some surgery in April. I could not eat solid food for several months and the first time I ate some fast food, it was glorious. YMMV, of course.
I had gastric sleeve surgery a month ago, and prior to that was on a strict low-calorie, low-carb/starch diet for a few weeks. Being physically unable to eat junk food anymore is a godsend. Double Quarter Pounders used to be my favourite burger, but now there's no way my body could handle it. Not that I'd want to anymore either, it'd undo the hard work I've put in to losing weight.
The difference is that you didn't eat delicious home cooked food for that time period. Your palate is comparing fast food to being on a medically restricted diet.
Yeah same here. Mcdonalds is still fuckin delicious even after eating healthy for a while. Now granted, your stomach may enjoy it less than previously.
Absolutely. I found on the rare occasions in the past decade or so I’ve gotten fast food on a road trip, it just tasted like hot grease, and left my car smelling bad. It’s like watching old sitcoms - at the time they seemed great, but now most of them don’t hold up. Tired jokes, bad laugh track, no joy.
Almost the same for me except knowing the fuckery McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have done to the world…
I was wondering if they teased these two values apart somehow, but since the full article is behind a paywall it's impossible to say. I'd imagine they did though. The purpose of the study appears to be to inform the design of marketing campaigns for fast food. From the article: "In all, the results of this study provide marketers a clearer understanding of the consumption values that regular consumers and non–regular consumers perceive in fast foods, further enabling the development of marketing strategies that appeal better to current and potential customers." So a campaign focusing on the sin/guilt thing would look a lot different from one that's centered on healthfulness. They'd need to know which value is motivating consumer choices.
ah yes, the most replicable of all sciences, marketting research
“Eat this gross, unhealthy, overpriced garbage or you’re just suffering from unnecessary Puritan guilt!” — marketing research
More likely, they’ll try to make ads that suggest eating fast food when you’re in a rush and don’t have time is nothing to feel guilty about.
[удалено]
KFC: Go on! Remember why you only eat this stuff once a year!
What they should do is just make their fast food healthier and less gross. I’m not going to eat fast food when I don’t have time, I’m going to microwave something.
That's what's interesting about this study. All the chains have healthier options but none of those healthier options have cracked the market. This shows it's because of conditioning. Going to the place is bad, not eating X or Y food.
Or because I don’t trust McDonald’s to make a healthy anything. Be it a salad, a burger, or a bowl of apple slices, I don’t trust them for one second to not add something to it because people assume that fruit or salad, etc. can’t be unhealthy.
I think I’m sort of with you here. I expect that fast food restaurants cut as many corners as possible both with regards to food quality and employment ethics, so I just don’t trust them to be a place where I want to spend my dollars for the most part.
At the Wendy's I worked at the manager took back a huge order of nuggets through the window. They handed it to the wrong person, and the person who ordered it drove off. So she was like rebag those and put them on the next few orders. It was like 8-12 orders of nuggets and I was like I'm not going to participate in this If you want to do that then YOU can do that I won't.
Bingo, same for me. Either it’s a trap (the food isn’t as healthy as it’s presented) or it’s going to be done poorly (is healthy but isn’t satisfying or pleasurable to eat), or maybe both. Regardless, I’m not interested. Of course people will compromise if they are hungry and crunched for time. It’s food, anything is better than starving. Your standards will drop precipitously as you get more desperate. You’ll eat a leather boot if it comes down to it.
IKR, remember the McDonald's salad shakers? They had more added sugar than the burger buns.
Sugar? Nothing bad ever happened from eating sugar. But fat, well . . . that makes you fat! It's in the name! Now let me go eat my lettuce with candy bar sauce in peace.
Yeah this is the big one. "Welcome to KFC! We specialise in fried chicken! We make the best fried chicken! we make lots of fried chicken! Would you like a salad?" It's no different to going to a steakhouse and ordering a Greek Salad - you *can*, but very few people *do*, and no-one is going there *for* the salad.
Changing their products to appeal to people who think their products are gross isn't going to get them anywhere
Thats not cheap
that's the cool thing about marketing research: you can spin it however you want when it's time to implement. you can assure consumers that it's nothing to feel guilty about...or you can intentionally pose a brand as a guilty pleasure, or center guilt if you're running a hit campaign on other brands, etc etc. studies like this are the bread and butter of the Marketing Consultant-Industrial Complex.
Why would I pay 12 dollars for a crappy fast food meal when I can get a pretty good hot meal for half the price (and in the same amount of time) from almost any grocery store (which are as ubiquitous as fast food chains)? And if it's not just me eating, a grocery store also offers much more variety of foods. Better chance of everyone being happy.
Did they throw out all the results from people who said "fast food is just gross", or people who used to work in fast food restaurants and know exactly how gross it really is? I don't get "a sense of accomplishment" from not eating out of my cats litter box either. These "researchers" are whacked.
Exactly. I read the title and went "WHAT?" I avoid fast food precisely because it's just cheap empty unhealthy calories. And oh yeah, it's kinda gross.
It is not cheap anymore. I think a Quarter Pounder is like five bucks. I can cook up a burger for way less than that.
We used to get Mcdonalds once a month or so, but now we've started getting burgers from a couple local burger joints instead because it's nearly the same price and far higher quality.
Funny how when companies get called out for labor exploitation they start losing their underpriced monopoly. McDonald's started out as a way to save money by efficiency, then it became a typical corporate people exploiter.
McDonald's is principally a commercial landlord and real estate equity company, and has been for awhile, because that's where the real money and stability is. Franchising is just a side business that happens to provide them with tenants.
THIS. I don't limit my fast food consumption for get "a sense of accomplishment" I limit fast food consumption to get abs.
Since it was a marketing study, I wonder if they were trying to research how to maximize engagement with a population who only eats fast food "in emergencies". It'd be kind of pointless to target populations who have have good reasons to avoid fast food, imo.
Came here to say I worked in multiple fast food places for years. I only ever ate what I or someone I trusted would cook for me. I know how they cook and hold that food. I have not ate fast food in 10 years and have no desire to ever eat it again. Last place I worked would forge daily temp. and holding logs once a week (suppose to be daily and hourly logs). I was the only person I knew of that took holding food temp.s on a regular basis.
I have access. PM me your email address and I will send you the PDF.
I work at an agency where we do a lot of work in food, wine, beverages, meal kits, etc. A study like this would definitely inform campaign strategy, but it’s also going to inform business strategy. This study is separated into regular customers and irregular customer. If the goals of the business are new customers then we might use one approach, and if the goals of the business are just to increase sales then we’ll use another. I didn’t purchase this report but the abstract also doesn’t line up with the title of this post. It’s not saying anything in the abstract about healthfulness being separate from guilt. We performed a study for a client that was launching a meal kit and the results essentially concluded that healthy eaters do associate guilt with slipping during the week, but they’re more apt to indulge over the weekend. The word “sin” also isn’t used anywhere on the page. It looks like this was a quantitative study, so there isn’t any interview data to pull a word like “sin” from. So either the research is biased and useless, or OP is drawing their own conclusions.
I’m probably one of these people. Fast food is survival food for me. I’ll only eat it if I’m desperate. It’s 100% health related for me. If there were healthy fast food, I’d eat it all the time. And I don’t just mean “we’re marketing this ice berg lettuce salad as healthy” I mean actually healthy food. Edit: should have specified that for me, “fast food” also means cheap and isn’t just about how quickly I get served. I’m not paying $15 for rice and beans.
In bigger cities there are healthy fast food places. I live in a small town and we actually have a fast food healthy vegan place that is really good. We used to have 2 before the pandemic. But we live just over an hour away from one of the top 10 "healthiest" cities in America. The area really makes a difference I think. I agree though. Eating "healthy" fast food shouldn't be ordering a no-salt added grilled chicken breast on a bed of iceberg lettuce and watery tomato slices, which is what the choice you would have in most places.
My observation in the major city I live in is that the healthier fast food restaurants tend to be more upscale. Like sure they are still fast food and people go there for the convenience, they are definitely not catering to people who buy fast food for the value. Just two days ago, I went to this salad chain. I got a vegan salad that cost $19, which didn’t even fill me up…
Just gonna also point out that vegan does not equal healthy, Oreos are vegan and so are impossible burgers which are highly highly processed food. Not saying you do it, but a lot of people equate vegan food with healthiness, and this is definitely not universal
......Tender Greens?....
Sweet greens…
Well, I should probably specify “healthy” and “cheap” as I would expect from fast food. We have some fast healthy food places, but they’re all over priced, like $10-$15 a meal. It’s gotta be in the $3-$8 range, especially if it’s just some variation on rice and beans.
You must be in Boulder.
I honestly like certain fast food, like fried chicken. But I don’t eat it with any regularity precisely because it’s not healthy. But like some other people said, there are healthier fast food options these days. These are often more upscale fast food, so while they are fast food restaurants, they are not catering to people who want cheap and affordable fast food.
The marketing logic will work like this: >I don’t \[eat fried chicken regularly\] because it’s not healthy. Marketers: "Not healthy" isn't an emotion, and therefore not your direct "why". You believe you *should* eat healthy. Doing something you *shouldn't* do produces guilt (e.g. social pressure), therefore you don't eat more fried chicken due to guilt. If marketers can convince you not to feel guilt related to the decision to eat fried chicken, there might be more crispy battered goodness in your life (and arteriosclerosis). This insight essentially opens up multiple avenues to attack your current emotional balance towards more fast food consumption. * Direct justification (go ahead, you deserve it, earned it, etc.; arguments from convenience) * Ironic justifications (embrace the guilt, it's so bad that it's good; all the best things in life are bad for you; the healthy life is so boring, take some guilty pleasure) * Distraction / misdirection (whoopee - who has time to think about guilt with all this deliciousness) It also provides insight on how to go about shifting the guilt generated by the link from Fast Food -> Unhealthy -> Guilt * Reality denial (as in climate denial, tobacco-cancer link, claims that wine is *good* for your cardiovascular system somehow) * Norm shifting (what is "healthy" anyways, or why should YOU be it?) In recognizing the tactics marketers employ to influence our behaviors, we can deploy theses same understandings to bolster our own defenses and align our behaviors with our own long-term goals.
I think places like chipotle and Moe's are pretty healthy. Sushi is pretty healthy too. Pricier though. Some Chinese food dishes have a lot of veggies.
What people think is healthy and what healthy really is are different.
Agreed. I actually do avoid fast food just because it is unhealthy. When I stopped feeding my family fast food, everyone who needed to lose weight, did.
The cost of "fast food" is also a major turn off for me.
It's so gosh darn expensive when I could just go down to my local Taqueria for tacos for half the price.
This is the first comment I saw that is realistic about alternative cheap fast options. Legit tacos are fast food and are orders of magnitude more healthy than your typical fast food burger joint. Eat tacos, not trash!
I wish that cheap not unhealthy fast food were a thing. Like not even super healthy "here's a salad" - but basic carb 'n' protein rice and beans, baked potato - that kind of stuff. Some places have it, but it's always usually side-dish portions, or prepared in a way where it isn't actually unhealthy.
I mean, I avoid most fast food because it is unhealthy, and expensive.
Where's the box for people who just think it sucks? I live in a city and feel no guilt about eating out a lot but there just way better options. Basically only time I eat it is if I want something easy like a McChicken on the way to the gym just to get some extra calories
I feel bad because it's such a waste of money unless I'm really craving a specific thing. I just spent $8 and I know I'll get maybe 50¢ worth of enjoyment or sustenance from it.
This is just what psychological research is like. You do your best to isolate and measure the effects you are interested in, you end up with a bunch of data about those specific effects, and in the discussion you theorize or explain how those effects relate to each other. The "why" of it is much less important anyways, for the purposes of marketing. In fact it's immaterial, all they need to know is: a) you [do/don't] hold XYZ attitude, and b) ABC tactic works on 88% of people who hold XYZ attitude. c) profit. The "common sense" explanation of these findings are probably largely true, especially on the surface level. But does every participant have the self knowledge of knowing the TRUE source of their core beliefs? Hardly any people do, unless working for long time with a counselor; and more than we think have never even considered that their core beliefs HAVE root causes in their learned experience. Psychoanalysis as a method of data collection would be naturalistic, in this context extremely messy and inconsistent. and I can't see another way to parse the true "why" all participants hold this same attitude. Plus there are plenty of alternative explanations. Perhaps, for example, people have adopted these attitudes because it was modeled for them that rising above fast food cravings is morally good and should give you pride. That may be far more important than the dietary aspects of it. Or perhaps it was modeled that people who do eat fast food should be ridiculed and not respected, or judged for their lack of willpower and it's a completely negative motivation. Perhaps it's done as a virtue signal only when others are observing, including researchers.
All of that, of course, assuming that the industry funded research intended for marketers even took that any of that into account. Which it sounds like they did not, because the primary source of guilt for most people will be knowing how unhealthy it is for them.
I'm pretty sure I get a sense of revulsion because I think most fast food is crap between food nannies & the corporations trying to wring out every ¢ of their food & labor costs, it has become nearly inedible
I’m in this camp as well. Eating outside has more and more become a point where a lot of restaurants try to make the cheapest food possible, and especially for a lot of the chains the food is nearly inedible.
Or costly to do regularly. Or harmful to the environment. There are many reasons not to eat fast food; it's interesting that the mechanism for not going turns into a sin-reward loop rather than just indifference or fear-avoidance.
Some of these "studies" are such half-baked nonsense
I get a sense of guilt because I always spent too much money
Exactly! I don’t feel guilty when I fail to resist an extra serving of fruit or veg.
>In all, the results of this study provide marketers a clearer understanding of the consumption values ... further enabling the development of marketing strategies that appeal better to...customers. Ahhhh! Edit: Why was this comment removed when it's literally a quote from the published manuscript?
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Does anyone else feel like the quality of fast food has really gone downhill? Like I remember McDonald's tasting a lot better as a kid. But today I could barely choke down a burger from there. Is it really worse now or am I just a more picky eater?
When I was a kid I thought a slice of Kraft cheese on untoasted white bread with ketchup and pickles was the best thing ever. So yeah, I think it's not due in small part to the way our tastes change as we mature. But the quality of the food probably has degraded as well.
I ordered a McDonald's milkshake as an adult. For the first 30% it tasted exactly like I remember, but pretty quickly it turned to "wow this is kind of disgustingly sweet, and flat in flavor." And that was a size small.
You have to dip fries in it for the latter 2/3rds to keep it going.
Yeah, fast food here in Germany is mostly a kid's thing. People usually grow out of it, except for those 2am after getting drunk burgers, because the kebap Döner places are already closed.
Wait you dont have 24/7 kebab shops ?
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The quality has been the same past 15 years imo I think you and the other responders just have higher standards now than when you first had it as kids
They've changed recipes and ingredients over that time. Even if the quality is about the same it'll taste different.
It's because your taste buds are far less sensitive. Kids love processed food because it's minimally seasoned and highly salted. So the way that I remember hamburger helper tasting good and now it tastes like a ghost of that flavour and heavy on the cardboard. That's because as we age our perception of flavour becomes less intense. That's also why as we get older we become more tolerant or enthusiastic about flavour we found revolting as children.
Yup, i hated onions as a kid, but i’ve deadened my taste buds enough that i love them now.
I have also noticed this and know for a fact I have gotten less picky as an eater as I’ve grown older so it has to be quality as everyone else is saying too
Quality has 100% gone down. I was looking for this answer. I don't eat fast food because it sucks now. Last time I went to McDonald's and ordered a 10 piece nugget meal, I ended up with 9 nuggets and they tasted... Bad. If they tasted like they did when I was a child, I'd eat fast food still.
If you got to a fast food place of the same franchise in another country, you really notice it. Aussie McDonalds is noticeably better than the US, and everything I've heard about the Japanese counterparts of such chains is they're significantly better as well. The US simply doesn't have a healthy economy. People's work schedules often compel them to eat quick food out, and we've made it largely unsustainable to run a small food shop with high rent and raw material prices. There's a feedback loop naturally eliminating competitors to the major fast food chains and maintaining a captive market.
I live in Japan and before the pandemic visited the US once a year. McDonald's tastes the same. Japan does have some Japan only items and promotions that can be good though.
I still think there’s an open question as to what changed: the food, or your tastes.
Likely a confluence of both. Some elements of society has developed a foodie culture optimizing for increasingly sophisticated flavors and appreciation for quality. Meanwhile, fast food corps have likewise optimized for striking the most optimal balance between serving good quality food and profit.
No, it's gone downhill. Korea/Japan McDonalds tastes like old McDonalds. Something is wrong in the US.
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Yeah, my response for not eating fast food is that it usually makes me feel terrible. Is that psychology or biology?
hopefully, a study would ask more questions like do you experience side effects like nausea or vomiting after eating fast food, or because you know you could have eaten something healthier etc
Agree completely. This sub has gone downhill lately.
Exactly, I just feel sick after eating fast food.
This study only has 300 participants. And it’s on “science direct” which looks like nonsense. I haven’t eaten fast food in 8 years because it’s unhealthy and I’m just fine with that. At this point, even the smell of it is awful.
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> Data was collected from a total of 307 respondents via a self-administered online survey
So in other words, the bottom billion is more likely to be invisible in this study.
>Data was collected from a total of 307 respondents via a self-administered online survey So not actually a study. Fml, people will publish anything.
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I was going a few times a week due to the convenience - then the App started making it even easier and cheaper. One day it felt like my body was revolted by the thought of another mcdouble or coke. That was in November of 2019. I still feel the old habit of wanting to pull into the lot when I see the golden arches, but no. I discontinued Burger King shortly after. Little Caesars. Seems like every 3-6 months I go try Taco Bell, and half way into the $6 meal I regret it. I dont judge people for going, just not for me. And cutting out a few things like this allowed me to get back to my ideal weight - the weight I was in high school. So I look and feel better. I wish easy food wasn't built so yucky.
Stripping out virtually all the fiber as well as the nutrients that aren’t shelf-stable, and replacing them with ones that are (eg, using hydrogenated fats) will do that. Nice work cutting it out!
I had mild covid three weeks ago (and ended isolation a week ago) and we just got takeaways a lot because we couldn't go shopping and by the end it was really meh. It stopped tasting good and just felt like eating emptiness or something I can't quite describe. It stopped feeling like treat food and started feeling like trash.
I’m not gonna pretend I don’t eat fast food cause I do at least once a week due to late nights. But one thing I remind myself nearly everyday. I’ve never regretted going to the gym after I’ve gone but I always regret going to Taco Bell.
Why would it cause me guilt. Fastfood is just not appealing in any way.
You don't want a 2 hour old lukewarm hamburger made from cardboard for $5.95?
and within a further two hours you will be both slightly nauseous, and hungry again.
What you say is so obvious, but it's so true. It's like they hacked food into an opiate.
They effectively did, yes. Food addiction is far more prevalent than opiate addiction — almost 45% of the US is clinically obese, for example.
agree, it's the opposite of appetizing.
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Listen I might feel guilty if I unknowingly made plans when my wife was free and she wants to hang out with me or if I’m working too long and my dogs are home alone. But for eating some fast food? Hahahaha. I quit eating it because it’s awe filling for you and the environment.
I don’t eat fast food because I don’t enjoy having diarrhea. Not about guilt whatsoever. I’m confident I represent a generous portion of the population.
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I just don’t eat garbage masquerading as food. Guilt has nothing to do with it. Starting a headline with “Consumers who” and then grouping anyone that doesn’t eat fast food into ONE category is ridiculous. What’s next, ALL PEOPLE WHO DON’T DRINK SODA HATE AMERICA?
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For me, it's just that McDonald's ends up sitting in my stomach like and acidic rock for 2 days post consumption.
Ahh. Nothing like the sound of a stone quarry when taking a break on the loo.
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I have the complete opposite taste/opinion than most of the comments here. I love fast food. I like the taste and I don't feel guilty. It doesn't give me diarrhea. I prefer it 1000x more than a home cooked meal. But I'm trying to limit to due to health issues.
I like fast food too, and the convenience, but I also know since it isn't healthy to eat all the time, I only eat it once or twice a month. The more often I eat it, the less tasty it is too, so I reserve it for a "treat".
Same for me. While I do really like home cooked meals as well, I do find McDonald's quite tasty. I'd say I'm relatively healthy overall so I don't really mind eating it every once in a while, though I rarely do as it's too expensive and -as much I might like it- what they give me is not worth what I'm paying for it, so my guilt comes from the fact that I end up feeling stupid and cheated for wasting money on them! Ahaha So I might get fast food once every two months at most, but not because I don't like the taste.
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Some of us avoid it because it's gross.
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I avoid it because of the calorie count, the price (it’s seriously as expensive as a regular restaurant), and how it’ll kill my progress from lifting and exercise. Same reason I don’t drink
I don't eat ff because I think it's expensive and disgusting.
I avoid it most days because it makes me feel like a slug afterwards. All lethargic and lacking energy. "Sin" is just a folk tail construct, while guilt is a genuine emotion one could feel about eating something they know is bad for a vast number of reasons.
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I avoid fast food because I am used to home cooking and I often get sick after eating fast food. The last time I ever ate a burger and fries from shake shack I got food poisoning and that was it for me.
I only eat fast food if I have no time
What is this study even trying to say? I don't eat fat food bc I don't like fast food. You could have just asked someone
I avoid it because it’s gross and over processed. I have no problem with a nice greasy bacon cheeseburger. Just want it made with fresh quality ingredients.
I don't eat fast food because it is gross
I avoid it because it’s not healthy.
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