Does Eating Organic Food Make You Selfish?

Do you want to be a better person? First, get stressed out. And whatever you do, don’t go near organic food.

May 22, 2012

Those are the counterintuitive implications of two newly published studies. One finds that exposure to organic foods reduces willingness to help others, while the other reports high levels of stress can increase trustworthiness and sharing.

Kendall Eskine, a psychologist at Loyola University New Orleans, examined the psychological impact of organics in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. His work builds on the concept of “moral licensing”—the notion that the doing of some kind of virtuous deed gives us license to engage in less than ethical behavior.

Eskine’s experiment featured 62 undergraduates, who were told they were participating in two unrelated studies—a consumer research survey and a moral judgment test. They were first presented with photos of four common food items, which they rated in terms of desirability. Some saw pictures of healthy foods that were labeled organic (including an apple and a tomato); others saw “comfort food” items such as ice cream and cookies; and still others saw neutral foods, including oatmeal and beans.  READ MORE