A food post may not land the same way with every teen. Who is holding the snack, smiling in the photo or appearing in the feed may matter, too.
A new experimental study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that Black, East Asian and Hispanic teens paid more attention to influencer-style posts when the promoter appeared to share their racial or ethnic identity. When those posts promoted less healthy foods, that added visual interest was linked with a stronger preference for less healthy snacks in a later choice task.
The study does not show that identity-matched influencers cause teens to eat more unhealthy foods in real life. It measured visual interest, intended engagement and immediate snack preference in controlled experiments. But the findings point to one reason social media food marketing may be especially persuasive: The messenger can make the message feel more relevant.
“Adolescence is a critical period for social modeling,” said Emily Balcetis, an associate professor in New York University’s Department of Psychology and the study’s lead author. “When influencers share those identities, they grab attention and as a result, signal what people like their followers do, value and eat.”
Food companies and marketers have long used identity, culture and relatability to reach specific audiences. Social media adds another layer because influencer posts can look more personal than traditional ads, and teens may not always recognize sponsored food content as marketing.
The researchers tested this dynamic through two experiments. In the first, more than 500 Black and non-Hispanic white teens ages 13 to 19 viewed influencer-style posts that featured either Black or white promoters. Some posts showed the promoter endorsing a less healthy food, such as an Oreo snack pack. Others showed a non-food product, such as a business card. The researchers kept other visual details as similar as possible across versions.
Teens then rated how cool, attractive and interesting the promoter and post seemed, along with how much the post caught their eye. They also reported whether they would like, comment on or share the post. To measure snack preference, researchers showed participants 20 pairs of foods, each with one less healthy snack and one healthier option matched for visual features such as color, shape and size.
Among Black teens, posts with racially congruent promoters drew more visual interest than posts with incongruent promoters. When posts included less healthy foods, greater visual interest was linked with choosing more of the less healthy snack options. The same visual-interest pattern was not significant among white teens.
In the second experiment, researchers expanded the sample to nearly 900 teens who identified as Black, East Asian, Hispanic or non-Hispanic white. The design was similar, but it added East Asian and Hispanic promoters alongside the Black and white promoters.
The pattern held across non-white adolescent groups. Black, East Asian and Hispanic participants found racially or ethnically congruent posts more interesting than incongruent posts. As visual interest in posts promoting less healthy foods increased, teens were more likely to choose less healthy snacks over healthier options in the study task.
“Who delivers the message matters,” said Marie Bragg, an associate professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and one of the paper’s authors. “Some minority adolescents are more influenced by unhealthy food marketing when it comes from influencers who share their racial or ethnic identity. They carry greater weight for teens in forming a sense of who they are.”
The findings are not a reason to blame teens for responding to marketing or to blame creators who share their culture, race or ethnicity with their audiences. The issue is how persuasive strategies can be used to promote foods that do not support healthy eating patterns, especially to young people who are still developing independence, identity and media literacy.
The study also has limits. It did not track actual purchases, eating habits, long-term diet quality or health outcomes. It also could not recreate the full complexity of a real social media feed, where algorithms, repeated exposure, peer comments, videos, trends and trusted influencer relationships may all shape attention and behavior.
Still, the findings add useful context to conversations about teen food environments. A sponsored snack post may not feel like an ad when it comes from someone a teen finds familiar, aspirational or culturally relatable. That may make media literacy especially important, not just for recognizing that something is sponsored, but for understanding why it feels persuasive.
“At a time when adolescents are exposed to social media food marketing on a daily basis, this research identifies visual interest as a key mechanism linking racially targeted marketing to unhealthy food preferences,” Balcetis said.
The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.