Worried About BPA? Pray for Divine Intervention

Steven Hentges, Ph.DTuesday, February 6, 2018 SAFETY
It’s not hard to find products labeled as BPA-free these days. For example, you’ll findmore than 100,000 results if you search Amazon.com for the term “BPA-free.” Even
manufacturers of products that never contained BPA in the first place get in on the action,for example the BPA-free glass food storage containers shown on the first page of theAmazon.com results. Some manufacturers go further to provide information on BPA andwhy they think you should avoid it.
Given the ubiquity of BPA-related product information, it’s not surprising that researchers
are interested in how people react to the information, including a recent study thatexamined the influence of thoughts of God. The case study included groups of volunteers
who were shown ads for reusable water bottles described in different ways, including ones
labeled as BPA-free and ones that included information on potential health effects of BPA,
as well as ads with no specific information on BPA.
Groups of volunteers were first reminded of God in various ways before seeing the ads andproviding their response to survey questions that probed their response to the ads. For
example, in the first phase of the study, one group of participants met in a chapel while
another group met in a classroom, with all other study parameters constant. In anotherphase, groups first read a magazine article about religious buildings or governmentbuildings.
By controlling how the participants were reminded of God and which information on BPA
they received, the researchers were able to evaluate how thoughts of God influenced
participant reaction to the ads. Overall, the study demonstrated that thoughts of God had asignificant impact. According to the researchers, one reason for the “God impact” is that
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people associate God with unlimited support that will help them cope with potentiallynegative events and emotions, in this case potential health effects of BPA.
So why did the researchers do this study? The first clue is found in the name of the journal
in which the study was published: Journal of Marketing Research. The BPA-free ads
were used as examples of a “fear appeal,” which the authors define as “a persuasive
message that attempts to elicit fear by depicting a personally relevant and significant threat
and then outlines feasible and effective suggestions for deterring it.”
Another clue is in the title of the last section of the paper: Marketing Implications andFuture Research. A key conclusion is that “marketers should exercise caution in using
fear appeals in situations where God may be salient to consumers.” In this case, if you’retrying to sell BPA-free water bottles with a fear appeal, it would be a good idea to avoid any
religious influences since the study showed that consumers are less likely to buy yourproduct if they are thinking of God.
But what if you’re a consumer, in particular one who doesn’t like being manipulated by fearappeals? One solution that might provide at least some immunity to the appeal is to thinkof God, which is exactly what the marketers don’t want you to do.
Another solution is to listen to the science. In recent years, scientists from the U.S. Foodand Drug Administration (FDA), the National Toxicology Program (NTP) and the Centersfor Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have conducted a comprehensive set of indepth studies on the safety of BPA.
From these studies we know that:
1) Consumer exposure to BPA is extremely low (including from reusable water bottles),2) BPA is rapidly eliminated from the body, and3) There is no risk of health effects at typical consumer exposure levels.
Based on the science, government bodies around the world have concluded that BPA issafe for use. There’s no need to buy that BPA-free product after all.

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But there’s even more to come. In the near future, FDA scientists will release results fromthe largest study on BPA ever conducted. The results aren’t available yet but you can readabout the study now and come back later for the results, which the marketers won’t beshowing you in their fear appeals.

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