Student ratings of food masculinity, healthiness and palatability, 2015

This short study provided groundwork for later research looking at the effect of gender threat on food choices. In this current study, a snowball sample of 128 university students residing in the UK were recruited through email and Facebook and asked to rate various foods (a list of 64 foods informed by a previous survey, the Student diet, 2014) along dimensions of masculinity, healthiness and tastiness. In each case the dimensions were rated on a 5 point Likert scale. Foods rated represented the three main meals of the day and snacks. We used these ratings to work out which items were viewed as most and least masculine, then from this information generated three foods that could be classified as ‘masculine’, ‘neutral’ and ‘feminine’ for snacks, breakfast, lunch and dinner that were matched as well as possible for palatability. The WWW-based survey was conducted using SurveyGizmo, in August and September 2015. Demographic variables include gender, height, weight, and BMI, country of origin, and ethnicity.