What Influences Us?

In Zhong and DeVoe’s exploration of fast food, they demonstrated how fast food restaurants can influence our entire outlook on life. They showed that exposure to images of fast food make people value time saving over other goals, and fast food restaurants are just about everywhere. Seeing these restaurants all the time undoubtedly influences our desires and actions. And, because fast food restaurants cause us to value time-saving, will we simply create more time saving services that continually prime us to value time-saving? I certainly hope not, particularly because of some of the other implications of fast food-priming that Zhong and DeVoe discuss.

Earlier in the semester, we talked briefly about food deserts, the idea that many low-income neighborhoods lack access to grocery stores and healthy, affordable food choices. Often, these neighborhoods instead have convenience marts and fast food restaurants. As suggested in the article by Zhong and DeVoe, this high exposure to fast food could potentially invoke financial decisions that value instant gratification over higher returns in the long run. Could the environment of the food desert be influencing the financial decisions of people in these neighborhoods?

While the answer might be “yes,” there are, of course, a multitude of other factors playing into the financial decisions of people living in low-income neighborhoods, and living near fast food restaurants certainly won’t make you poor. Still, it is important to recognize the silent factors that play into our decision-making. We like to believe that we have complete control over our decisions, but the Zhong and DeVoe article certainly implies that we don’t. And, when we recognize those factors that influence us, we can try to address their impact on us by examining how much we really value something like saving time. What other factors quietly play into shortsighted financial decisions, and how can understanding those factors increase our empathy toward people living in poverty?

I think that knowing about these studies and their results is important to combatting the effects of fast food restaurants. If we recognize the factors that influence our actions, we can readjust our views and judgments, assess what goals we really value, and make new decisions. We currently live in a fast-paced, fast food nation, but I think that knowledge and intentionality can help us to find a simpler way to live.