12 de mayo de 2020

Diet and Life Style Choices Interview

Essay by Alberto Ramos

Taking the interview about diet and nutrition was like answering something very
conflicting. Although I am not agreed with the mistreatment of animals, I see my diet
life is not exactly as the computer interview position, or at least as the creators
sharing point of view. In this topic, I can experience a cognitive dissonance, by taking
a decision between eating eggs, milk, and cheese, conscious about the
mistreatment, or eating just vegetables with the risk of malnutrition. As the concept
we saw about cognitive dissonance in the article Cognitive Dissonance: “Cognitive
dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This
produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs
or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance.” (McLeod, 2018).
To restore the balance, I think to myself that eating eggs, milk, cheese, and yogurt,
is not going to kill the animal. The responsibility of the animal food farmer, is
obtaining those foods into an ethical way. My responsibility is to avoid eating the
chicken, meat, seafood, and all dead animals, in order to let them live a happy life,
but is not my responsibility that, despite doing my effort by eating healthy proteins in
order to avoid its dead, that farmers mistreat the animals when getting milk, eggs,
cheese and yogurt. People can develop ways to obtain that products without do them
damage, and let human and animals live a happy life. The responsibility is from both.
The farmer, and consumer.

The problem about eating dead animals, is in relation with the obedience we have
to doctors, TV, and internet marketing, where social psychologist intervenes. There
is also a social pressure when everybody is going to eat meat in a restaurant, and
social meetings. As the concept says in its article Obedience to Authority:
“Obedience is a form of social influence where an individual act in response to a
direct order from another individual, who is usually an authority figure. It is assumed
that without such an order the person would not have acted in this way.” (McLeod,
2007).

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 12 de mayo de 2020

If doctors, TV, and internet marketing, give information in the same intensity about
animal’s mistreatment, as eating them is done, we would have a different world.

The key is to change habits. And to do so, we should have motivations. These ones
can be internal or external. The internal one, can be in relation to our appearance
and long life with an egg-lactose-vegetarian diet, its repetition through a cue, and
because of that goal:
“The second principle is remembering that repetition is key. Studies have shown it
can take anywhere from 15 days to 254 days to truly form a new habit. "There's no
easy formula for how long it takes," Wood says. Lastly, there must be stable context
cues available in order to trigger a new pattern. "It's easier to maintain the behavior
if it's repeated in a specific context," Wood emphasizes. Flossing after you brush
your teeth allows the act of brushing to be the cue to remember to floss. Reversing
the two behaviors is not as successful at creating a new flossing habit. Having an
initial cue is a crucial component.” (Drinkard, 2014).
The external one is in relation to what I mention before. Doctors, TV, internet
marketing, and social psychologists can influence positively people´s behavior:
“Public service announcements, educational programs, community workshops, and
weight-loss programs are all geared toward improving your day-to-day habits. But
are they really effective? These standard interventions are very successful at
increasing motivation and desire. You will almost always leave feeling like you can
change and that you want to change. The programs give you knowledge and goal-
setting strategies for implementation, but these programs only address the
intentional mind.” (Drinkard, 2014).
Taking the interview by computer, I think, let us be honest with our answers because
we are not looking someone face to face. And it is also easier and more productive,
quicker and more efficient doing it by computer than in a paper and with the direct
eye of the interviewer. By some moments, and remembering the question about the
interviewer´s personality, I would describe him as an animal activist. Maybe like a
man of color talking Portuguese in a gentle way.

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 12 de mayo de 2020

There was a moment in the interview, where it was a little confused. When it says
your citizenship and the place of birth. I thought I borned in Mexico, but also my
citizenship is here. The answer could be both in my case.
To improve the interview, social psychologists could do a marketing study of
alternative food products to meat. Products that are done in a gentle way to the
animal when the farmer get the cheese, the yogurt, and the milk of the cow, and also
the eggs of the hen.

Reference

Drinkard, Annie. (2014, August 14). How We Form Habits and We Change Existing
Ones. Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Retrieved from
https://www.spsp.org/news-center/press-releases/how-we-form-habits-and-
change-existing-ones
McLeod, Saul. (2018, February 5). Cognitive Dissonance. Simply Psychology.
Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html
McLeod, Saul. (2007). Obedience to Authority. Simply Psychology. Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/obedience.html

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