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Abstract
At the beginning of this research, we had in mind the low consumption level of fruits and
vegetables among French young people despite several months of intense exposure to health
messages, such as “eat 5 portions of fruits and vegetables every day”. Studies show that French
young people have memorized the messages, but did not alter their eating habits. Our major hypothesis
was that some “mental blocks” might be curbing fruit consumption, and removing
them might increase consumption. Similarly we thought that some “mental levers” if well activated
could increase fruit consumption. Identifying “mental blocks” and “mental levers” related
to fruits became our research goal.
To achieve this objective, building the cognitive map of the fruit universe appears an appropriate
method. In the process of constructing the map we discovered that we could also assess, although imperfectly, how people have formed their mental representation over the courses of the years.