The standards are different at a grocery store. As soon as a banana is torn off the bunch and returned to the shelf, its odds of consumption dive. Researchers at RWTH Aachen University and Goethe University Frankfurt cite prior reports by others that single bananas account for the highest amount of food waste of any item in the produce section and single bananas are much more likely to be discarded than their bunched counterparts if not sold by the end of the day.
To slip this probability around, the researchers suggest portraying the isolated banana as sad. In their study, single bananas were placed in a separate basket next to the bunches. The content of a sign adjacent to the singles was rotated during store hours. Sometimes it read “Here are single bananas that want to be bought as well.” Sometimes, it read, “We are happy singles and want to be bought as well,” accompanied by an image of a single smiling banana. And sometimes it read, “We are sad singles and want to be bought as well,” accompanied by an image of a single frowning banana.
Shoppers encountering the sign with the sad banana were those most likely to purchase single bananas. Companion studies by the researchers indicated this could be explained by the portrayal of sadness arousing in the shopper feelings of compassion. This emotion was assessed using a self-report scale containing items like, “I feel sympathy towards the single bananas.”
Parallel results were obtained when the produce of choice was a tomato which had been pulled off the vine attaching together a bunch of tomatoes. But there were limits to the effect. When single bananas were offered at a 30% price discount, singles did not sell better if depicted as sad than if not. The impact of the large discount overwhelmed sensitivity to the loneliness of the fruit.
And availability matters. In analyzing their data, the researchers recognized a need to exclude from the tallies a period during which there was an unusual popularity of singles, but the unusual popularity could be explained by there being a shortage of bunched bananas.
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I really enjoyed this article — it was both insightful and unexpectedly heartwarming
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback, Hannah, and for sharing in our face-to-face conversation your thoughts about the wonder of empathy being shown to a banana. I've written about anthropomorphism. As you are a health care professional, you might be interested in my post at https://rimtailing.blogspot.com/2023/06/humanize-diseases-to-build-preventive.html
DeleteVery cool! Wondering if any parallels can be drawn to people who are likely to be attracted towards the sad lonely individual in a crowd. Would the person who chose the sad banana be more likely to be physically attracted to such a person?
ReplyDeleteAlso, does it say anything about the individual’s personal fears? Is the person more afraid to offend others, likely to choose the individual banana? Which makes me wonder what came first. Are our greatest fears dictated by our worldview, or do they dictate our worldview?
Excellent insights and some valuable questions, Elmer. That the researchers found the lonely banana effect strongest for those who showed high empathy on a standardized inventory is evidence to me that those showing the effect would be drawn to comfort sad, lonely individuals. As to fears and worldview, those are good areas for further research. There is some intersection with political persuasion, which is a timely topic: Compared to liberals, conservatives view the world as a more dangerous place. I touched on this at https://rimtailing.blogspot.com/2019/02/attract-conservatives-with-luxury.html.
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