--Original published at AlexisPattersonBlog
When you get ready to go out to eat with someone, the first
thing that pops into your head is the first impression you want to make on that
person. You don’t want someone to judge you, or think that you talk too much,
eat too fast, etc. Yet if you have a diet restriction, does that change the
atmosphere? Would you feel more pressured if you were the one with the
restriction? Lots of people would say they feel a certain way when having to
present themselves as different in today’s society, especially when meeting
someone new. This is even more stressful when people are going to eat with
someone they just met for the first time. This pressure is best explained as
consumption stereotypes. For example, this is where someone will judge someone
else based off what they order or eat, depending on how picky they are, etc. A
study was conducted by psychology students from Western Connecticut State
University and University of Toledo who also wondered this. These students came
together to present the question of whether people that a dietary restriction
have such as gluten, would face conflict when it comes to dating or choosing a
dating partner.
To conduct the study, students hung up flyers and sent out
emails with incentives to obtain the test objectives. These students wanted the
test to be random, to show the effects it could have on anyone, not one
targeted group. There were two rounds of
this study done, both producing the same results. The first study was a series
of open-ended questions about gluten free individuals and their thoughts about
dating someone who would have a gluten free diet restriction. This study showed
both positive and negative results. A part of the research showed that if
you’re gluten-free, you’re more likely to be following a healthy diet, but
unfortunately also to be picky, high-maintenance, difficult to please,
demanding, concerned about your appearance, and entitled. Gluten-free
individuals were perceived as complaining, critical and judgmental, and
controlling and dominant
Think about this; if a boy and girl both had a dietary restriction, who do you think would be more likely to be a picky partner? Would this change your mind on your feelings towards them? The second study was conducted to simulate it as if it was realistic dating. Students were then given certain scenarios, as if they were looking at a profile of someone with a dietary restriction. The reactions to those profiles were recorded and analyzed. Just like the first study, they were asked to reflect on the profile based off a list of traits to describe them. Regarding gender perceptions, gluten-free individuals were more feminine and less masculine than others (Whitbourne 2019). The results led to show that there is a balance between if people do think one would be considered picky or not, leaving room for further research.
Reflection
When writing my own scholarly article, determining what to
include was one of the easier things to do. You wanted to include information
that allowed the reader to understand what was going on in the study, so the
more information the better off they are of being able to understand. Yet determining
what was relevant was also crucial as you do not want to add information that
is not needed. Starting the article was one of my struggles when writing as you
want to hook the reader and give them more of a reason to want to read more.
Another struggle was trying not to be repetitive from the first article. It is
hard when you already have a summarized article that was published and already
looked over. Everyone is human, so out of habit they will want to look at that
one to help guide for this one. You want to find a balance of information that
is relevant but concise.
When reading the research, I used the five questions as a
base line for what should be included in my article. You want all aspects to be
answered for the study to be reliable and easy to understand. Some similarities
with my summary and the article are that they both started off situational,
where the reader was put into a situation and asked their opinion on the
information provided. Yet the pop culture article is more like a story and my
article focuses more on questioning your own personal opinions. One difference
I found present between the two articles that helped me when writing my summary
was the lack of explanation of the effect of gender roles on the outcome of the
study. It mentions gender roles in a sentence or two towards the end of the
article, yet it is only mentioned briefly, assuming the reader would already
know.
When writing each of the different pieces, I was able to observe the level of detail that goes into each. For a pop culture, you want to appeal more to an audience, stating factual information but keeping the tone of the writing easier to understand. The scholarly article is more study- based. It goes more into depth about the study, how it was performed, and the data that was obtained by it. The scholarly article reflected to be more of a scientific paper rather than an article to put in the media. The media production is similar to the pop culture as it is more summary based and not as detailed as the study. For example, the article was broad in the sense that it did not show statistical data that could support the findings. In the study, the open-ended response questions were analyzed, and percentages were given to explain the most common answers that were given.
sources
Aloni, Maya, Geers Andrew L.,
Coleman Mykelle, Milano Karissa. “Too picky for my taste? The effect of the
gluten-free dietary restriction on impressions of romantic partners.” Appetite.
Elsevier, 15 September 2018.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201901/is-picky-eater-also-picky-partner
https://www.elsevier.com/locate/appet