Garratt, Kyle, authorLong, Marilee, advisorRouner, Donna, committee memberButki, Brian, committee member2007-01-032007-01-032014http://hdl.handle.net/10217/83966This study tested the viability of humorous narratives as a means to promote fruits and vegetables to adolescents. The study assessed the effects of two types of humorous narratives on transportation, counter-arguing of the message, perceived severity of consequences for not consuming fruits and vegetables, and intention to consume fruits and vegetables. The participants were 67 students at a middle school in the western United States. Participants read either a related-humor narrative, which featured humor related to nutrition, an un-related-humor narrative, which featured humor un-related to nutrition, or a control narrative about a non-nutrition topic. The related and un-related messages did not differ significantly from each other for any of the dependent variables. Neither of the humorous messages differed significantly from the control messages for any of the dependent variables. Participants held favorable pre-exposure attitudes toward eating fruits and vegetables, which may have strongly influenced the high levels of intention to consume fruits and vegetables. The study also had low statistical power, which may have affected the ability to detect effects in the sample. This study suggests that humorous narratives do not offer an advantage in nutrition promotion over non-humorous messages for adolescents. The study discusses implications, future research, and limitations.born digitalmasters thesesengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.healthhumorintentionnarrativenutritiontransportationText