beauty matters

I was just reading as article in the Boston Globe that discusses Cornell professor Brian Wansinks' work in trying to improve school food. In part it reads:

"But it turns out that students are susceptible to the same marketing strategies that grocery stores have been using for years. Several experiments have shown that children will be more likely to eat items if they see them early in the lunch line and find them attractive and convenient to pick up. Putting fruit in a good-looking bowl works. So does putting a salad bar in a prominent place. Calling your carrots “X-ray vision carrots” can double sales."

I am struck by the idea that putting fruit in good-looking bowls increases a students' chances of actually selecting that fruit and then eating it. The irony is delicious.

As we cut, cut, cut school budgets across the the country, art and music are usually the first to go. But this simple example shows that these "frivolous" concepts of beauty really do matter. They aren't just a nice little add-on, a bonus.

If an apple doesn't look appealing, a child won't take it, won't eat it. Does it get any more fundamental than that?

Read more about this subject here.