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There is more in a name than an arbitrary label. A name carries powerful information that affects our attitudes and behavior.
People with popular names such as Jacob or Isabella--2009's number one baby names, tend to be rated as better looking and get better grades than a Boris or Olga, neither of which is in the top 1,000 names for 2009--even if Boris and Olga are better looking and smarter.
Juliet was wrong about that rose by any other name. Present an odor to a person in a blindfold. If you say it's a rose, it will smell sweet. If you say it's skunk, not so sweet.
Names tap into our inner Orwell, which can render sour into sweet or turn a toad into a prince.
A recent series of studies on food perceptions and consumption choices, "When a Salad is not a Salad: Why Are Dieters Easily Misled by Food Names?" by Cagler Irmak and colleagues in the Journal of Consumer Research: October 2011, shows that we are what we think we eat.
In one study, subjects were given this description of a lunch special, "diced tomatoes, onions, and red peppers tossed with pasta shells, salami, mozzarella cheese and dressed with a savory herb vinaigrette. Served chilled on a bed of fresh romaine lettuce." Sounds tasty, but is do you think it's healthy? If you are a dieter, and they tell you it's the "daily pasta special," you will rate it as unhealthy. But call it the "daily salad special," and whether you're a dieter or not, you will likely rate it as healthy.
So call it a salad, and both dieters and non-dieters will eat and delude themselves about its healthfulness no matter how bad it is for you. The authors point to Romano's Grill Chicken Florentine Salad-listed on the menu as orzo pasta, grilled chicken, fresh spinach, diced tomatoes, and capers. Eat that salad and you will consumer 900 calories and 60 grams. An honest dish of spaghetti and meat balls with red sauce nets you less than 400 calories and only 10 grams of fat.
In another study, the researchers showed that names will not only affect how we think about food but how much we eat of it. Dieters who were told that Jelly Belly Assorted Fruit Sours were "candy chews, rated them as less healthy and less tasty, and ate fewer of them than dieters who were told they were "fuit chews."
It made no difference for non-dieters whether they were called candy or fruit.
So it's not only the name of the food that affects our behavior. Consumption attitudes and behavior depend on how we label ourselves.
"Over time, dieters learn to focus on simply avoiding foods that they recognize as forbidden based on product name," the authors explain. "Thus, dieters likely assume that an item assigned an unhealthy name (for example, pasta) is less healthy than an item assigned a healthy name (for example, salad), and they do not spend time considering other product information that might impact their product evaluations."
If you don't think of yourself as a dieter, you are more likely to ignore food labels, ignore cues such as "candy" or "fruit," and eat whatever you want, whatever the consequences.
To inject a public policy note, this underscores the need for government watchdogs such as the FDA to ensure truth in labeling and give us a fighting chance against food marketers who would put lipstick on any pig or healthy on any candy.
Probably the best thing they could do for us would be to put calorie count in big bold print next to whatever name they put on the product, not the way it is now-tiny print you can easily avoid as you pop down those high calorie fruit chews.
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My book, Nasty, Brutish, and Long: Adventures In Eldercare (Avery/Penguin, 2009), was a Finalist for the 2010 Connecticut Book Award. Click here to read the first chapter It provides a unique, insider's perspective on aging in America. It is an account of my work as a psychologist in nursing homes, the story of caregiving to my frail, elderly parents--all to the accompaniment of ruminations on my own mortality. Thomas Lynch, author of The Undertaking, calls it "A book for policy makers, caregivers, the halt and lame, the upright and unemcumbered: anyone who ever intends to get old."
