Francesca R Dillman Carpentier

• PhD
• Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chile has one of the highest global obesity rates, particularly among children, with diet-related chronic diseases being the leading cause of death. To combat this, the Chilean government implemented the 2016 Law of Food Labeling and Advertising, which introduced front-of-package warning labels (FOPL), marketing restrictions, and sales prohibitions...

In its efforts to reduce increasing rates of obesity and nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases, Peru implemented front-of-package (FOP) warning labels (also called warnings) on processed and ultra-processed foods in June 2019. The goal was to inform consumers about high levels of sugars, saturated fats, sodium, and trans fats in packaged produ...

Objective Sugar-sweetened beverage (i.e., sugary drink) consumption is associated with chronic health issues that disproportionately affect Black women. Culturally-informed (CI) health campaigns may be more effective among Black women than campaigns designed for general audiences. This study assesses the effects of a CI campaign on consumption inte...

The school food environment is a key intervention point for influencing children’s and adolescents’ diets. As more countries establish school meal programs to provide critical nourishment to students, establishing standards for the foods served can increase the consumption of key nutrients and limit the consumption of foods that do not build health...

School food environments contribute to children’s nutritional intake and overall health. As such, the World Health Organization and other public health organizations encourage policies that restrict children’s access and exposure to foods and beverages that do not build health in and around schools. This global scoping review explores the presence...

Purpose: Some young adult cancer survivors (YACS; ages 18-39) struggle to incorporate their cancer experiences into their identities. Using stories, or narratives, is a new approach that could help YACS to integrate cancer and their identity. These stories offer opportunities to experience perspectives outside of oneself, which can build validation...

Este documento examina el impacto del marketing digital en la promoción de productos no saludables, especialmente bebidas y comestibles, y su influencia en los patrones de alimentación y la salud pública. Basándose en una amplia revisión de estudios y evidencia empírica, se destaca cómo las estrategias de marketing digital han transformado el panor...

Objective Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are heavily advertised globally, and SSB consumption is linked to increased health risk. To reduce unhealthy food marketing, Chile implemented a regulation for products classified as high in calories, sugar, saturated fat, or sodium, starting with a 2016 ban on child-targeted advertising of these products...

The World Health Organization (WHO) have released a new guideline, “Policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing” [1] which recommends the development of comprehensive laws to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing. This new guideline extends previous recommendations [2] to limit the adverse effects of unhe...

Objective: To establish the relationship between the marketing strategies and nutritional quality of foods and beverages promoted in television food advertisements (TV ads) seen by Colombian child audiences overall and based on child gender and socio-economic strata. Design: A quantitative content analysis of marketing appeals was combined with...

Nutritional warnings are used as a public health strategy to address obesity. Peru approved in 2013 and implemented in 2019 a law requiring nutritional warnings on the marketing and packaging of processed foods high in sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and containing trans-fat. The complexity behind the design and approval of these policies over six ye...

Abstract Background As childhood obesity rates continue to rise, health organizations have called for regulations that protect children from exposure to unhealthy food marketing. In this study, we evaluate the impact of child-based versus time-based restrictions of “high-in” food and beverage advertising in Chile, which first restricted the placeme...

This paper focuses on the development and feasibility of a digitally-based educational intervention, titled Recognize & Resist (R&R), for writers of One Direction (1D) fanfiction on Wattpad.com. The goal of R&R is to reduce the prevalence of social norms that are supportive of sexual violence within 1D fanfiction. 1D fanfictions, or fictional roman...

Background In April 2018, South Africa implemented the Health Promotion Levy (HPL), one of the first sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes to be based on each gram of sugar (beyond 4 g/100mL). The objectives of this study were to examine whether the psychological constructs tax awareness, SSB knowledge, SSB risk perception, and intentions to reduce...

Background Nutritional warnings are used as a public health strategy to prevent increases in obesity prevalence. Peru approved in 2013 and implemented in 2019 a Law requiring nutritional warnings on the marketing and packaging of processed foods high in sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and containing transfat. The complexity behind the implementation...

Experimental and real-life evaluations show that the use of front-of-package warning labels (FoP) in unhealthy foods is well understood and can modify people’s behaviors. However, it is unclear whether these effects remain in the long term because of the risk of message fatigue. The purpose of this study is to explore after four years of implementa...

Young children regularly consume sugary fruit drinks, in part because parents may falsely believe they are healthful due to front-of-package (FOP) claims and imagery. The goal of this study was to assess: 1) the prevalence of FOP claims/imagery on fruit-flavored beverages purchased by U.S. households with 0-5-year-olds, and 2) proportional differen...

Background: The use of advertising content strategies that suggest consuming a product will confer nutrient- and health-related benefits influences household food purchasing decisions, which increases consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor products. We examined the presence of marketing claims regarding nutrient content, health and nature in re...

Screen time has been associated with overweight and obesity, as well as with poorer dietary quality. However, the reasons explaining these associations are not well understood. The objectives of this cross-sectional study were (Stiglic & Viner, 2019) to determine the extent of overall TV viewing as well as using screens while eating (e.g., watching...

This investigation examines whether and how multinational corporations’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities fulfill the function of public diplomacy by boosting home country reputation in the minds of interna- tional publics. Two experimental studies were used to empirically test a theoretical model that examines nuanced effects of CSR...

Background The first phase of a comprehensive marketing policy was implemented in Chile in 2016. The policy restricted child-directed marketing of foods and beverages considered high in energy, total sugars, sodium or saturated fat (“high-in”). The objective of this study was to examine the role of high-in TV food advertising as a mediator in the a...

From flirtatious glances to a passionate kiss to the explicit depiction of sexual intercourse, sexual content in entertainment has historically enjoyed wide appeal. This essay reviews the scholarly literature on the nature of sexual depictions in entertainment media and discusses people’s attraction to, and enjoyment of, these depictions. Drawing f...

Chile recently implemented a food labeling law that requires packaged foods with sugar, saturated fats, sodium, and/or calorie content that exceeds government-defined thresholds to carry a front-of-package warning for each excessive nutrient. This law does not prohibit the use of nutrient content (NC) marketing claims on packages, as long as the cl...

Background South Africa was the first sub-Saharan African country to implement a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax called the Health Promotion Levy (HPL) in April 2018. Given news media can increase public awareness and sway opinions, this study analyzed how the media represented the HPL, including expressions of support or challenge, topics assoc...

Importance: Rap artists are among the most recognizable celebrities in the US, serving as role models to an increasingly diverse audience of listeners. Through their lyrics, these artists have the potential to shape mental health discourse and reduce stigma. Objective: To investigate the prevalence and nature of mental health themes in popular rap...

Background and Objectives: Stress is a ubiquitous aspect of modern life that affects both mental and physical health. Clinical care settings can be particularly stressful for both patients and providers. Kindness and compassion are buffers for the negative effects of stress, likely through strengthening positive interpersonal connection. In previou...

Objective To examine children’s exposure to food and beverage advertising across a year of Colombian television based on whether products exceed PAHO-defined nutrient thresholds. Design Nutritional information was obtained for all foods and beverages advertised and used to categorize each product according to product category (e.g., beverage, snac...

Background The Chilean government implemented the first phase of a comprehensive marketing policy in 2016, restricting child‐directed marketing of products high in energy, total sugars, sodium or saturated fat (hereafter “high‐in”). Objectives To examine the role that high‐in TV food advertising had in the effect of the policy on consumption of hi...

Background: Fruit drinks are the most commonly consumed sugar-sweetened beverage among young children. Fruit drinks carry many nutrition-related claims on the front of package (FOP). Nutrition-related claims affect individuals' perceptions of the healthfulness of products and purchase intentions, often creating a "health halo" effect. Objective:...

Mood management theory lies among the theoretical approaches explaining and predicting selective exposure to media. Mood management proposes that a key motivation driving people's selection of media content is the service of hedonism—as is argued, people innately want to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. According to the theory, a person's curre...

Priming refers to the activation, or triggering, of an idea in one's memory, making that idea more top‐of‐mind, or rather increasing the idea's accessibility in memory. Priming effects refer to the use of that accessible idea in the person's next thought process or behavior without the person's express awareness. The process that describes the act...

Background: South Africa was the first sub-Saharan African country to implement a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax called the Health Promotion Levy (HPL) in April 2018. Given news media can increase public awareness and sway opinions, this study analyzed how the media represented the HPL, including expressions of support or challenge, topics asso...

Research on stigma as a barrier to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake for reducing risk of HIV infection has focused on the experience of stigma-othering, shaming and blaming and the associated negative social consequences of this stigmatisation. This study expands this focus to examine how current and potential users of PrEP discuss their expe...

Objectives Chile's Food Labeling Law requires packaged foods that exceed certain thresholds for sugars, saturated fats, sodium, and calories to use one or more front of package warning logos identifying the excessive nutrient, and restricts the use of nutrient claims (e.g., lower sugar) contradicting its warning (e.g., high in sugar). We examined h...

Objectives South Africa was the first sub-Saharan African country to implement a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax called the Health Promotion Levy (HPL) in April 2018. Given news media can increase public awareness and sway opinions, this study analyzed how the media represented the HPL, including expressions of support or challenge, topics assoc...

Objectives. To study changes in food advertising on television after Chile’s food marketing restriction was implemented in June 2016. Methods. Food advertisements shown between 6 am and 12 am on the 4 primary broadcast and 4 cable channels with the largest Chilean youth audiences during 2 random weeks in April and May 2016 and 2017 were analyzed fo...

Background: Increased TV viewing is associated with overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Excess weight gain might be a result of increased dietary intake during television viewing, eating foods that are highly advertised at other times, or lack of physical activity. The objectives of this cross-sectional study were (1) to determine t...

Objective: To evaluate the effects of Chile's 2016 regulation restricting child-directed marketing of products high in energy, saturated fats, sodium, and sugars on reducing children's exposure to "high-in" television food advertising. Design: Television use by preschoolers and adolescents was assessed via surveys in the months prior to implementa...

Food marketing has been identified as a contributing factor in childhood obesity, 20 prompting global health organizations to recommend restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to 21 children. Chile has responded to this recommendation with a restriction of child-directed marketing 22 for products that exceed certain regulation-defined thresholds i...

Advances in technology have made music more readily accessible and geographic distance irrelevant in dissemination of music. Greater access to popular music has resulted in greater consumption by both children and adolescents. Popular music in the United States may contain the most sexual content, compared with other forms of media. Exposure to suc...

Reducing children's exposure to food marketing is an important obesity prevention strategy. This narrative review describes current statutory regulations that restrict food marketing; reviews available evidence on the effects of these regulations; and compares policy design elements in Chile and the United Kingdom. Currently, 16 countries have stat...

Background In line with calls for action from international health organizations, Chile implemented in June 2016 a set of regulations to tackle the obesity epidemic. The new regulation includes the mandatory use of front-of-package warning labels on packaged foods/beverages high in energy, sugars, saturated fats and sodium. Additionally, such foods...

Objective In the light of Chile’s comprehensive new restriction on unhealthy food marketing, we analyse food advertising on Chilean television prior to the first and final phases of implementation of the restriction. Design Content analysis of marketing strategies of 6976 advertisements, based on products’ nutritional quality. Statistical analysis...

The present study explores the interrelationships between emerging adults’ exposure to sexual depictions on mainstream television, their attitudes toward sexually permissive behaviors, and the salience (accessibility) of concepts related to sexual activity in their implicit memory. Findings indicate a small but significant relationship between incr...

Objective Front-of-package (FOP) marketing strategies of a wide variety of beverages were catalogued to examine the prevalence of each strategy prior to a sweeping Chilean restriction of child-directed marketing aimed at reducing obesity-related disease among Chile’s youth. Design Photographs of 1005 beverage packages were quantitatively content-a...

This study documents the extent of sexual content, including sexual health content, in scenes with and without expressions of love on network and cable television popular with emerging adults. Sexual talk and/or behavior was found in 20% of all television scenes coded across 53.5 hours of programming. A third of these scenes featured sex alongside...

Interactive narratives allow audience members control over characters and unfolding plots. The present study tested exposure effects of an interactive narrative in which audience members adopt the perspective of an immigrant illegally crossing into the United States from Mexico. Results suggested that exposure to the interactive narrative engendere...

Priming concerns the act of triggering a concept in one's memory (e.g., violence) via exposure to an image (e.g., gun), word (e.g., fight), sound (e.g., gunshot) or a combination of representations of the concept. Studies of media priming effects examine what kinds of concepts are triggered by specific media depictions or combinations of depictions...

According to mood management theory, individuals are hedonically motivated to select media content that facilitates a positive mood state, which at its core, suggests a desire to escape from—to avoid—affective states that are not positive. In efforts to explain when individuals might make non-hedonic media choices, two studies examined individuals’...

This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical framework of media priming and studies applying this framework to understand effects of media representations of race on people's use of stereotypes and counter-stereotypes in social judgments. The implication of having a memory structure that locates attributes of a minority group within a netwo...

Two experiments (Ns = 314, 447) were used to evaluate the effectiveness of sexual cues in temporarily increasing young adults' self-reported sexual permissiveness, as well as the effects of romantic cues in temporarily decreasing permissiveness. Participants were exposed to sexual or romantic cues embedded as a theme-defining component of an online...

Young adults (N = 357) were surveyed following the suicide of celebrity Robin Williams to better understand how involvement with the actor and emotional responses to his death influenced searches for information concerning depression, suicide, and mental health. Emotional distress following the actor’s death mediated the relationship between involv...

This commentary explores the implications of increased social media marketing by drug manufacturers, based on findings in Hyosun Kim’s article of the major themes in recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning letters and notices of violation regarding online direct-to-consumer promotions of pharmaceuticals. Kim’s rigorous analysis of FDA let...

Visitors to news websites are greeted with a complex combination of images and text, any of which could serve as a prime that biases subsequent evaluations, even if those evaluations are seemingly unrelated to the initial prime. In fact, previous research has demonstrated that media are able to serve as an effective tool at activating racially rela...

A key component differentiating interactive storytelling from non-interactive media is agency, or control over character choices. A series of experiments show that providing agency over a character increased the user-character connection, which then increased engagement in a character-consistent charitable act. Findings were observed in technologic...

The present study examines how young men and women, when primed with sexual cues in entertainment media, incorporate these cues into their first impressions of an unfamiliar target. Respondents (n=188) were exposed to pop- ular music either with or without sexual lyrics. Respondents in the sexual music condition recognized the sexual conveyance of...

Three experimental studies (N = 286) tested how priming the concepts of sex or romance influence the way people perceive other social media users during impression formation. In Study 1, participants first completed a word-search task containing sexual (intercourse, lust), romantic (love, heart), or neutral (logic, brain) word primes. Participants...

In three experiments, this investigation evaluated the sufficiency of construct accessibility in explaining individual-level agenda setting and priming outcomes. Participants were exposed to an issue presented within a story from a respected news source (e.g., New York Times), a story from an unknown individual's blog, a story from a respected non-...

Two experiments were used to examine how sexual media primes influence perceptions of an unknown target's sexual characteristics and ultimate ratings of the target's appeal. Participants were randomly assigned to one condition of a fully crossed 3 (control, weak sexual, or strong sexual media prime) × 3 (general, dating, or professional social netw...

This invited commentary reviews the survey research described in "Examining the Relationship between Media use and Aggression, Sexuality, and Body Image" and situates this research within the recent history of entertainment media regulation. Key Take Away Points: (1) Northup's work corroborates recent work examining the correlations between emergin...

A wealth of literature demonstrates that media act as primes that affect our judgments, yet relatively few studies have addressed which primes are more effective than others when faced with competing stimuli. This research explores the effectiveness of a prime based on its modality (image or text) and valence (positive or negative slant). Results o...

This study explores hostile media bias and third-person perceptions of the influence of media coverage of immigrants using data (N = 529) from North Carolina, where the Latino population grew almost 400% in two decades. As hypothesized, anti-immigrant sentiment was significantly related to perceptions of “hostile” (pro-immigrant) news coverage. How...

BACKGROUND: Although accurate health-related representations of medical situations on television can be valuable, inaccurate portrayals can engender misinformation. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare sociodemographic and medical characteristics of patients depicted on television vs. actual United States (US) Emergency Department (...

This randomized trial of a family-focused preventive intervention for Mexican American (MA) adolescents evaluated intervention effects on adolescent substance use, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and school discipline and grade records in 8th grade, 1 year after completion of the intervention. The study also examined hypothesized mediator...

To use ecological momentary assessment techniques to measure the association of major depressive disorder (MDD) with media use. Data were collected using an ecological momentary assessment protocol with cellular telephone-based brief interviews. Participants received as many as 60 telephone calls from a trained staff member during 5 extended weeken...

Using the analogy of priming a water pump to get the water ready for use, priming in social science research refers to the “activation” of an idea in a person’s mind, readying that idea for use in later activities, such as making a judgment or reacting to someone else’s action. Thus, priming involves how we cognitively process information. Theories...

To examine correlates of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine awareness and information sources in a state requiring schools to inform parents about HPV vaccine. Telephone survey of a North Carolina population-based sample of 696 parents of females aged 10-17 years about HPV vaccine awareness and information sources (daughters' schools, healthcare pr...

This study explores how young women's definitions of empowerment relate to their reception of The Girls Next Door, a popular reality show that documents the life and fun times of Hugh Hefner's three sexy, live-in girlfriends. Specifically, we examine whether young women's general attraction to reality television relates to their endorsement of diff...

In one experiment, listeners hear radio news delivered by a male or female anchor with either no background music or with music of differing complexity. Memory for and enjoyment of the news are assessed. Findings suggest that adding a simple beat makes the news more memorable and enjoyable, whereas highly complex music hinders both message processi...

Research indicates that personal interests drive news consumption, such that individuals neglect news items that are not of obvious personal relevance. This study tested whether an extrinsic social goal might increase personal interest in news through increased acquisition of, and perceived attention to news information, irrespective of pre-existin...

The informational utility model states that (a) message utility increases as the intensity of the magnitude, likelihood, and immediacy of outcomes conveyed in the message increases, and that (b) increased utility leads to increased selection of the message. This study tests the model with radio news. Respondents listened to stories reflecting high...

This research investigates the role of perceived health knowledge on the effectiveness of fear-based persuasive appeals. Undergraduates (N = 263) read a strong fear, weak fear, or efficacy-only message encouraging breast or testicular self-examination. As expected, results indicated that men high in subjective knowledge were less reactant and more...

Extensive media coverage of a political issue has been shown to influence, or prime, the criteria used to judge overall performance of political leaders. This political priming effect is traditionally explained with network models of memory, which identify priming intensity and recency as key factors in determining the strength and endurance of a p...

Mood management studies typically have found that adults will select media that enhance positive moods and reduce negative moods. In this study, adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder and control adolescents without psychiatric disorders were called on customized cell phones up to 4 times a day and asked about their current mood state...

This study describes a culturally sensitive approach to engage Mexican origin families in a school-based, family-focused preventive intervention trial. The approach was evaluated via assessing study enrollment and intervention program participation, as well as examining predictors of engagement at each stage. Incorporating traditional cultural valu...

Two experiments explore the validity of conceptualizing musical beats as auditory structural features and the potential for increases in tempo to lead to greater sympathetic arousal, measured using skin conductance. In the first experiment, fast- and slow-paced rock and classical music excerpts were compared to silence. As expected, skin conductanc...

This study investigated the effect mainstream music featuring sexually suggestive lyrics may have on judgments of potential romantic partners. Respondents listened to either sexually provocative or innocuous music. Thereafter, respondents were presented with online personal advertisements featuring ambiguously described target individuals. Responde...

Given the Internet's capacity to reach a wide audience and recent increases in violence-related episodes among our nation's youth, Internet-delivered, interactive conflict resolution programs may prove to be a powerful tool to prevent the growing phenomena of adolescent violence. In this study, we tested the efficacy of an Internet-delivered confli...

Selective exposure to Internet news articles was hypothesized to increase with higher informational utility of news, defined by the informational-utility model according to dimensions of magnitude, likelihood, and immediacy of consequences. Data were collected in Germany and the United States to investigate the robustness of predictions for both po...

We conducted a survey of radio station program directors and general managers to explore the perception and role of innovation within radio programming and the key factors that influence this perception. In the study, we found that, in general, programmers and general managers perceive little innovation in programming except at their own stations....

After the assessment of various traits pertaining to adolescent rebelliousness, respondents were placed in a private situation that allowed them to listen to selections of an assortment of upbeat songs with either socially defiant or non-defiant messages. The songs were presented via computer. The computer's software unobtrusively recorded the dura...

An Internet newsmagazine was created to ascertain effects of three dimensions of news salience—magnitude, likelihood, and immediacy of events—on selective news exposure. In an overview, leads of half the articles were manipulated along the salience dimensions (low vs. high). Remaining leads and all articles were held constant. While readers sampled...