Day 065 - 09 Dec 94 - Page 65
1 nature. We do not like to see ourselves as something being
2 blown in the wind.
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: Can I summarise your criticisms in this way?
5 A. I have not finished my criticisms. Perhaps they are
6 not ready for summary.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Mr. Rampton came in because you did pause.
9
10 MR. RAMPTON: If there is more, I will stand and listen to it.
11 A. I am sorry if I am taking my time on this but I believe
12 it is extremely important and I appreciate your patience in
13 hearing -----
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Carry on. You need not make excuses.
16 A. I will try to do it as quickly as possible, but the
17 more interruptions, the more difficult it is for me to do
18 that and to keep my train of thought. People seldom admit
19 that they are likely to be influenced by others, especially
20 advertising, for example. Therefore, many people at the
21 meeting were not at all surprised when the research that
22 was set up in this way showed, apparently, the limited
23 power of advertising.
24
25 Secondly, there were a number of criticisms that were
26 expressed and concerns expressed about the classification
27 of statements. People were asked to articulate about food
28 decision-making. I am sure people have read this and know
29 that that was what was going on in the study. It was then
30 up to the researchers to classify whether the families
31 concerned had expressed, for example, concerns about health
32 and nutrition.
33
34 Now, what was of concern when this research was presented,
35 that in order for a statement to be classified as
36 expressing a concern about health and nutrition, that those
37 words actually had to be mentioned. It was a very narrow,
38 it was unnecessarily narrow and, therefore, set an
39 unreasonably high threshold for statements to get into that
40 category.
41
42 So, for example, if a parent said: "I am concerned because
43 Emily will not eat her greens", that was classified as a
44 statement about eating up and being concerned that children
45 were eating. But what you have to ask, what underlies
46 concern about eating greens? One would not express it in
47 the same way about : "Oh, I am concerned because she is not
48 eating up her biscuits". What underlies that statement is
49 an awareness and acknowledgment that greens are, therefore,
50 good for you. So, the concern that Emily did not eat her
51 greens does express a concern about health and nutrition,
52 an underlying concern about health and nutrition; yet the
53 way that the statements were classified did not appear in
54 that category.
55
56 So the net effect of this classification and coding process
57 was to reduce the apparent concern about health and
58 nutrition.
59
60 Thirdly, the research only tried to measure the direct
