Abstract
Research has shown that imagining food consumption leads to food-specific habituation effects. In the present research, we replicated these effects and further examined whether the depletion of self-regulatory resources would reduce the habituation effects of imagined food consumption. Since self-regulatory resources have been shown to reduce habituation effects during the perception of emotional stimuli, we expected a reduction in habituation effects from imagined food consumption when self-regulatory resources were depleted. In Study 1, we replicated habituation effects as a response to imagining gummy bear consumption with a high (36) and medium number (18) of repetitions in a camouflaged taste test. Participants imagining gummy bear intake showed decreased food intake compared with participants who imagined putting a coin into a laundry machine. The number of repetitions did not significantly moderate the observed habituation effect. In Study 2, we investigated whether self-regulatory depletion would impede habituation effects evoked by the imagination of walnut consumption. Participants in a depleted state did not show a reduction in food intake after imagining walnut intake compared with participants in a non-depleted state. We discuss directions for future research and processes that might underlie the observed moderating effect of self-regulatory resources.
Highlights
Food intake is important for survival and has negative consequences such as overweight and obesity, which are accompanied by massive societal and financial burdens (Reilly and Kelly, 2011)
Since research on the habituation effects of imagined food consumption is rare, the objective of the present research was to examine whether these kinds of habituation effects could be replicated across different kinds of food items, different amounts of repetitions and most importantly whether similar limiting circumstances would hold for imagined food consumption as they do for other kinds of habituation
This latter point is of major relevance because the depletion of selfregulatory resources usually increases impulsive behavior such as the consumption of palatable food (Vohs and Heatherton, 2000; Hagger et al, 2010; Heatherton and Wagner, 2011), and it would be of interest to determine whether reduced habituation effects contribute to such phenomena
Summary
Food intake is important for survival and has negative consequences such as overweight and obesity, which are accompanied by massive societal and financial burdens (Reilly and Kelly, 2011). A common view is that cues leading individuals to imagine the consumption of food (e.g., cues from sensory marketing) powerfully increase appetite and the likelihood of food consumption through perceptual modulation (Barsalou, 2008; Elder and Krishna, 2010). This might be true in many cases, researchers have shown that mechanisms of habituation can help individuals cope with these challenges (Papies et al, 2012). This latter point is of major relevance because the depletion of selfregulatory resources usually increases impulsive behavior such as the consumption of palatable food (Vohs and Heatherton, 2000; Hagger et al, 2010; Heatherton and Wagner, 2011), and it would be of interest to determine whether reduced habituation effects contribute to such phenomena
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