Organic shoppers 'less likely to show kindness' "Participants who were exposed to organic foods volunteered significantly less time to help a needy stranger, and they judged moral transgressions significantly harsher than those who viewed nonorganic foods," said lead author Dr Kendall Eskine. These results suggest that exposure to organic foods may lead people to affirm their moral identities, which attenuates their desire to be altruistic. The study, carried out at Loyola University in New Orleans, involved 62 students who were split into an organic food group, a comfort food group and a control group. The first group were given a packet containing pictures of organic apples, spinach, tomatoes and carrot with organic labelling. The second group received images of ice-cream, cookies, chocolate and brownies while the control group looked at pictures of oatmeal, rice, mustard and beans. Next, all participants were given details of six moral transgressions ranging from a politician taking bribes to a student stealing books from a library. Finally, when they thought the study had finished, they were told that a professor in another department was looking for volunteers willing to spare 30 minutes without any reward. People who had been exposed to organic food agreed to spare 13 minutes on average - significantly less than the control food (20 minutes) or comfort food (25 minutes) groups. The organic group also made harsher judgments against moral transgressors than the other two groups, which made similar judgments. Dr Eskine and colleagues, who titled their paper 'Wholesome Foods and Wholesome Morals?', concluded that organic foods and morality "share the same conceptual space" in our minds. They said other studies have found that people were more willing to help someone after eating something sweet, while tasting something disgusting led to tougher moral judgments. Discussing the implications of their findings, they wrote: "The possibility is that those who simply purchase organic products will be less likely to engage in other meaningful acts of environmental protection. Although organic products are indubitably environmentally sound and ethical choices, perhaps milder, more subtle advertisements could help promote the beneficial qualities of these products without inadvertently inducing moral licensing in its consumers.