All foods are not created equal when it comes to healthy eating, and if you’re trying to eat right for life, it’s often necessary to incorporate at least some organic foods into your diet. Nothing wrong with that, right? Well according to new research people exposed to organic foods are more likely to exhibit judgmental attitudes. Basically, if you eat organic … you’re a jerk.

In a study published last week in the Journal of Social Psychological & Personality Science researchers claim that they tested their organic jerk theory on three groups of people. The first group was shown pictures of organic foods, the second was shown pictures of comfort foods like brownies and cookies, and the third, the control group, was shown pictures of non-organic, non-comfort foods, like rice, mustard and oatmeal.

Researchers then determined participants’ moral judgment by asking them how many minutes they would be willing to give up to help a stranger and how harshly they judged fictional situations. They found that on average, the comfort-food group volunteered 24 minutes to help a needy stranger, while the control group volunteered 19 minutes and the organic group offered just 13 minutes.

According to study author Kendall Eskine, assistant professor of the department of psychological sciences at Loyola University in New Orleans:

“We found that the organic people judged much harder, compared to the control or comfort-food groups. There’s something about being exposed to organic food that made them feel better about themselves and that made them kind of jerks a little bit, I guess. You’d think eating organic would make you feel elevated and want to pay it forward. People may feel like they’ve done their good deed by choosing organic. That they have permission, or license, to act unethically later on. It’s like when you go to the gym and run a few miles and you feel good about yourself, so you eat a candy bar.”

Not sure if I agree with the research, seems like a bit of a stretch, some people are just jerks no matter what they eat. Organic food is still some of the healthiest around so don’t let a little sensational research keep you from your healthy eating goals. If eating organic makes you a jerk…be the biggest, healthiest jerk of them all.

Do you eat organic? Do you think people who eat organic are jerks?

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3 Comments

  1. I agree with the author on the researcher may have been reaching with that case study. Personally, I like organic food and I’ve had people look down on me and judge me on the organic foods I choose; they assume I’m above anything processed.

  2. Most of these studies are funded by people who want their worldview to be dominant. I wouldn’t pay to much attention to this study

  3. The entire basis of this study is ridiculous, and the conclusion is nonsense. Spare us.

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