HEREDITY: Understanding the psychosocial issues of parents' exposure to food fake news: the place of beliefs and food literacy.

PhD :

Maëva PITON

The main cause of non-communicable diseases such as cancer or obesity, a dietary imbalance has visible consequences on health from an early age. Concerned by these deleterious effects, the actors of the health care system have embarked on the promotion of a healthy and balanced diet among the population. Nevertheless, these preventive actions tend to ignore the contextual factors of eating behavior.

Preview :

Food is the object of beliefs and representations, and can therefore produce divergent discourses and misinformation such as food fake news (FFN). Appeared massively in the media, FFN impacted and transform pre-existing social representations by introducing misleading data without scientific or societal basis. Parents, especially primiparous mothers, are an interesting target population for FFNs. As a public health issue, FFNs undermine healthy eating habits and lead to confusion and avoidance of nutrition prevention efforts in favor of "alternative truths. FFNs present various foods as an alternative, leading parents to make food choices that are dangerous to their child's health. Intergenerational, food digs the social inequalities of health and exposes from childhood, precarious populations to the risk factors of cancer. The objective will be to understand the processes at work regarding the links between representations, food literacy, exposure to FFN, and food behaviors by using a mixed methodology in 3 phases: semi-directive interviews; photographs; questionnaires with parents of children under 3 years old This will lead to a better understanding of the links between exposure to FFN, literacy, representations, and health behaviors among parents. This project is part of a global approach to primary prevention.

Supervisor :

Pr. Marie PREAU, PôPS-U1296 Inserm/ Université Lumière Lyon 2

Graduate School :

Pôle de psychologie sociale de l’unité Inserm 1296 – Université Lumière Lyon 2

Partners :

Institut National du Cancer (INCa)