The “Naughty but Nice” Conflict Between the Id and Super-Ego in Young Persons Consuming Packaged Snacks in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Efforts to improve public health through raising awareness about the links between certain consumer choices and increased risks to mid- and long-term health are motivated by a general acceptance that knowledge shapes attitudes and attitudes steer the decisions behind consumer behavior. This dissertation surveyed teenagers in Bangkok, Thailand to assess both their knowledge of healthy living and eating habits and the extent to which having or not having this knowledge influences the decision-making processes that determine the teenagers’ packaged snack–consumption habits. This decision-making process is conceptualized as a manifestation of the id (i.e. the desire for immediate pleasure) vs. superego (i.e. what I know society expects me to do and what I believe is best for me in the long-term) conflict described by Freud. This dissertation therefore used the information-forming-attitudes-and-attitudes-influencing-behavior model as its research method and thus provides a way to directly assess how accurately this model describes the process driving consumer behavior. 

The results show that teenagers’ primary sources of information on packaged snack health impacts are packaging labels, Facebook, Instagram, and various other online sources. Thai teenagers generally know the difference between healthy and unhealthy habits, but this knowledge is less important than immediate desires when making dietary decisions; even overweight teenagers choose to eat sweet and fatty snacks.

These research findings reflect id-dominated patterns of food consumption amongst Thai teens with the desire for momentary pleasure outweighing the knowledge they have on the mid- to long-term impacts that packaged snacks have on health.