Kids say food taste better if there’s a cartoon character on the box

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Kids think food tastes better if it has a cartoon character on the box, according to a new study that should come as no surprise to anyone who’s a parent.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania had 80 kids, from 4 to 6 years old, look at one of four boxes of a “new” cereal. The cereal was in boxes labeled either Healthy Bits or Sugar Bits, but what was in the boxes was all the same. One box of each of the Healthy Bits and the Sugar Bits had a cartoon penguin from the movie “Happy Feet” on the front, and one of each didn’t. The kids were told the names of the cereals, then each was given a sample from only one type of box and asked to rate the taste.

Kids who ate the cereal with the cartoon characters on the box liked it better than kids who ate from boxes without the characters.

Gannett News Service