We’re taught early and often how important it is to eat our fruits and vegetables. But what if the produce is problematic? What do we do with kooky-looking carrots, aberrant apples, and egregious eggplants? They’re a little harder to swallow, even for adults. It’s also where some Bryant University professors — and a pair of googly eyes — come in.

Each year, roughly 72 billion pounds of fruits and vegetables produced in the United States go straight from the farm to incinerators or landfills because the produce is too small, asymmetrical, or scarred to meet cosmetic standards — even if it is perfectly healthy.

For a team of researchers, led by Bryant Associate Professor of Marketing Kacy Kim, Ph.D., and including Professor of Marketing Sukki Yoon, Ph.D., that statistic was more than alarming; it was a call to action. “You can make an apple pie out of any of them and nobody's going to notice if one of the apples looked different,” says Yoon.

To persuade consumers to overlook aesthetic flaws and purchase imperfect produce, marketers have tried to implement a range of strategies, including offering discounts for irregular items or explaining the environmental effects of food waste. But Kim’s team wondered if there might be a different way, one that draws on basic ideas about how humans see the world around us — and how we see each other.

Their resulting research paper, “From ugly to attractive: Leveraging anthropomorphism to increase demand for irregular‐appearing produce,” was recently published in Psychology & Marketing. In the article, the team, sharing work that began in 2018, suggests a novel approach for altering consumer perceptions by arguing that retailers can counteract negative perceptions and enhance purchase intentions in customers if they attribute human-like qualities, or anthropomorphize, irregular produce.

Part of this aversion, they suggest, results from something called exemplar theory, a psychological concept that suggests people categorize objects and ideas by comparing new stimuli to memories of past experiences, or "exemplars." “With exemplar theory, humans are very, very exacting and there’s almost no room for error,” says Kim. “They have something ideal in their mind and they can't deviate from that.”

“Humans are special among all other living things on the planet. When we perceive other humans, or even think we perceive other human beings, our brain is more sensitive; it completely changes how we think.”

In such an unforgiving marketplace what’s a strange strawberry or unattractive carrot to do?

The research team’s answer was simple: It’s not about making the produce less ugly. It’s about making it more human.

By anthropomorphizing the fruits and vegetables, we can short circuit the exemplar-based response and replace it with something kinder and more subjective. “When we evaluate a non-human object, we are generally very critical and quick to say this is ‘bad’ if we notice an asymmetry or abnormality. However, when we look at a human, we are usually more generous, and we tend to avoid the usual binary,” explains Kim. “We might say, ‘Oh, she has unique eyes,’ or ‘Their hair is interesting,’ or even ‘They seem like their heart is beautiful.’”

Fortunately, no mad science was needed to create these human/harvest hybrids — just an image of a lowly, lumpy eggplant, some googly eyes, and Photoshop wizardry. With the click and drag of a mouse a new, adorable species was born — if only as a jpeg file.

Adding the eyes was a simple task, but the researchers found it was also a meaningful one. Our eyes, the paper notes, are often called “windows to the soul,” and hold profound spiritual symbolism and play an important role in social interaction.

They can be awfully cute too — especially when they’re googly — and the test subjects agreed. The ocularly enhanced produce received a significant bump in purchase intention compared to the eyeless control images. The results suggest something powerful about humans’ ability, and desire, to empathize, Yoon suggests. “Humans are special among all other living things on the planet. When we perceive other humans, or even think we perceive other human beings, our brain is more sensitive; it completely changes how we think.”

The researchers also found that similar results could be reached by simply naming the produce. In a second study, merely telling subjects that a three-headed strawberry was named “Jordan,” or that a four-tailed lemon was named “Taylor,” increased purchase intentions.

Even the researchers, despite their professional detachment, found themselves affected by the muppet-esque transformations. “I don’t discriminate; they’re all beautiful to me,” insists Yoon at first, before quietly admitting he thought Jordan was especially adorable.

However, the affection-enhancing effect did not extend to all circumstances. Anthropomorphizing “normal” looking produce, for instance, didn’t seem to increase purchase intentions. “Perhaps sometimes, we just want an apple to look like an apple,” Yoon suggests with a shrug. If the item is pretty enough, we might not need additional coaxing to appreciate it.

“We always value a sense of humor in our research.”

Likewise, in a third study, when subjects were told that items of produce were from different locations, anthropomorphization only seemed to boost certain pieces. While produce suggested to hail from corporate farms received the bump, produce said to be from local independent farms did not. That may be, the team suggests, because we allow more irregularity in food from smaller, more “natural” farms, while we expect a certain amount of uniformity from larger factory farms.

But even with those limitations, the team is excited about the implications of their findings and the effect they could have on limiting food waste. “One of the general criticisms of academic research is that it can sometimes be difficult to understand, or too far away from our everyday life,” says Kim. “This study is relatable to everyone and easy to share.”

Armed with the research findings, marketing communicators can subtly shift perceptions of produce by altering cosmetic standards and enhancing perceived attractiveness, boosting consumer demand for irregular produce. Grocery stores could give human names to irregular-looking produce and place them in prominent areas with appealing signage, creating a connection between consumers and the produce. Social media and informational campaigns could further extend their reach.

There could also be other applications of the research as well. Anthropomorphizing could be used to convince consumers to expand their palettes, for instance, and try more exotic items like donut peaches and Sumo oranges, Kim suggests.

The researchers, accomplished in their fields and published in a range of prestigious journals, acknowledge there’s a little bit of inherent silliness in studying an ugly eggplant with deep, soulful eyes. Yet, Yoon and Kim agree that it didn’t hurt the study, either.

“We always value a sense of humor in our research,” affirms Yoon.

So, the next time you’re in the produce aisle and see some off-model oranges, remember Jordan the strawberry, Taylor the eggplant, and Alex the tomato.

Because fruity is in the eye of the beholder.