Can emojis help fight childhood obesity?

The fight against childhood obesity is a topic grappled with at every level of society: from government policy makers to parents pushing shopping trolleys. But are we overlooking the input of the most important stakeholders — children?

The Washington Post has reported on a recent study which found that labelling shelves with simple emoji-style faces resulted in kids making healthier food choices.

Until now, “children have been asked to sit on the sidelines while adults handle this obesity crisis”, said Greg Privitera, study leader and current research chair at the Center for Behavioral Health Research for the University of Phoenix School of Advanced Studies. “The thought that came to mind was, ‘Why aren’t we involving children and empowering them to be part of the solution?’”

Privitera says while children may lack the health literacy to interpret traditional nutrition labelling, they are exceptionally good at interpreting emotional expressions.

“Children are wonderfully brilliant at emotion,” Privitera said. “As young as six months to one year, they can accurately use basic expressions of emotion to make decisions that make perfect emotional sense.”

In the study, published in the journal Appetite, children aged 5–11 were given a brief lesson on how to interpret the emoji (happy face = healthy, sad face = unhealthy) and then asked to walk through a mock supermarket aisle and select four food items. In one aisle, the 12 foods were ‘emolabelled’ with stickers. Smiley yellow faces enticed children to select more nutritious snacks (fruits and vegetables), while frowny faces discouraged kids from choosing high-kilojoule options (chips, cakes and cookies). The other aisle was identical, except that the colourful labels were removed.

When the emoji labels were used, 83% of the children switched one of their food choices to a healthy food option, with the results being largely consistent among every age level.

The study results have reinforced other recent studies with similar findings, including one from the American Academy of Pediatrics in April 2015, which found that utilising green smiley face emojis at an elementary school cafeteria resulted in students making better food decisions. In that study the children bought less chocolate milk and more plain non-fat milk and fruit, while average vegetable purchases in the cafeteria rose by 62%.