Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Although routinely informed of the benefits of fruits and vegetables, Americans eat far short of the recommendedamounts. Instead of just telling people that fruits and vegetables are healthy, providing a compelling causal and teleologicalexplanatory framework could increase both people’s conviction about their health benefits and commitment to increasing theamount and variety of fruits and vegetables they consume. Our brief intervention: (1) emphasizes that fruits and vegetables havethousands of health-promoting phytochemicals, well beyond just vitamins, (2) describes clear causal mechanisms by whichthese foods ensure cellular health, (3) draws an analogy between the benefits of plant-based foods and the power of plant-derived medicines, and (4) explains that plants contain abundant nutrients because they must manufacture these chemicals fortheir own survival. This novel intervention improved understanding and increased participants’ intentions to eat more fruits andvegetables, illustrating how intuitive theories can shape motivation for behavioral change.