| Project: Is Healthy Eating Viral? Improving Understanding of How Social Networks Can Be Used To Influence School Food Choices |
| Award Year: 2010 |
| Amount of award, fiscal 2010: $25,000.00 |
| Institution: Iowa State University |
| Principal Investigator: Helen Jensen |
| Status: Ongoing |
| Detailed Objective: This project will investigate how social networks can be used to influence children’s school food choices through imitation of nutritional habits, social learning, and social influence (adopting friends’ preferences). Social networks can amplify the spread of positive behaviors and suggest new ways of designing effective and sustainable interventions. Work under this planning grant is designed to plan, test, and develop a detailed research plan to investigate how social networks can be used to influence school food choices, especially for middle and high school students. A small pilot study designed to increase fruit and vegetable intakes will be conducted in a small sample of Iowa schools. |
| Topic: Behavioral Economics, Child Nutrition, School Lunch and Breakfast |