Obesity And Cartoons: Are These Lovable Characters Making Your Kids Fat?

New findings published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology reveal that the amount of cartoons children watch may also be linked to the amount of food they consume.

Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder discovered that children consume twice as much high-calorie food, including things like cookies and candy, after observing certain cartoon characters. Furthermore, they also noted that these children may be even more responsive to certain characters that are overweight, including some of our favorites like Winnie the Pooh or even Homer Simpson. 

Researchers noted that children tend to perceive ovoid or egg-shaped characters as overweight even when the creatures may be imaginary and from there, seeing ovoid cartoon characters may influence children to eat more unhealthy food.

"Because research like this is new -- looking at kids and stereotyping particularly of cartoon characters -- we weren't sure whether kids would be aware of bodyweight norms," Margaret C. Campbell, lead author of the study, said in a statement. "But surprisingly, they apply typically human standards to cartoon creatures -- creatures for which there isn't a real baseline."

During the study, researchers collected data from over 300 children in three age groups averaging 8, 12 and 13 years old.

From there, findings revealed that children were less likely to eat certain foods after being presented with the healthiest option represented in six pairs of pictures and words; this offered things like getting sleep over watching television or drinking soda versus milk and/or playing inside versus playing outside. All of these and others help decrease the risk of junk food consumption.

"This is key information we should continue to explore," Campbell concluded. "Kids don't necessarily draw upon previous knowledge when they're making decisions. But perhaps if we're able to help trigger their health knowledge with a quiz just as they're about to select lunch at school, for instance, they'll choose the more nutritious foods."

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