Stop signals decrease choices for palatable foods through decreased food evaluation

Harm Veling,Wolfgang Stroebe,Henk Aarts

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00875

Harm Veling, Wolfgang Stroebe + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00875

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Abstract

The present study explores whether presenting specific palatable foods in close temporal proximity of stop signals in a go/no-go task decreases subsequent evaluations of such foods among participants with a relatively high appetite. Furthermore, we tested whether any decreased evaluations could mediate subsequent food choice. Participants first received a go/no-go task in which palatable foods were consistently linked to go cues or no-go cues within participants. Next, evaluation of the palatable foods was measured as well as food choice. Replicating previous work, results show that among participants with a relatively high appetite palatable foods associated with no-go cues are less often chosen as snacks compared to when these foods are associated with go cues, whereas this manipulation did not affect participants with a relatively low appetite. Moreover, this effect was completely mediated by decreased evaluation of the palatable foods that had been associated with the no-go cues, whereas evaluation of the foods associated with go cues did not mediate this effect. Results further showed that the devaluation effect of foods associated with no-go cues was independent of the amount of pairings (4 vs. 12 vs. 24) with the no-go cues. The current findings suggest that decreased food evaluation is a mechanism that explains effects of stop signals on food choice.

Highlights

Influencing people’s choices for specific foods is an important topic of scientific inquiry, because the profound influence of food choice on maintaining a healthy body weight
PARTICIPANT CHARACTERISTICS AND MANIPULATION CHECKS Participants in the low vs. high appetite conditions did not differ with regard to % of women, age, chronic dieting scores, perceived dieting success, body mass index (BMI; overall M = 22.48; SD = 3.74; one participant did not report her weight), intentions to eat healthily, and frequency of consuming the foods used in the present study, Fs < 1.6, ps > 0.22
Accuracy in the go/no-go task was high (M = 0.98; SD = 0.05), indicating that participants performed the task well, and accuracy did not differ between appetite conditions, F(1,48) = 2.11, p = 0.15, η2 = 0.04

Summary

Introduction

Influencing people’s choices for specific foods is an important topic of scientific inquiry, because the profound influence of food choice on maintaining a healthy body weight. Recent work suggests that linking images of aversive health consequences of eating too many calories to specific foods can decrease subsequent choices for such foods (Hollands et al, 2011). The idea behind this approach is that by directly modifying psychological responses toward specific foods, food choice can be affected even if people do not think all that much about their choices (Strack and Deutsch, 2004; Sheeran et al, 2013). Recent research suggests that one effective way of modifying immediate responses toward specific foods or drinks is by linking these stimuli to behavioral stop signals in a go/no-go task (Veling and Aarts, 2011a). In the present research we aimed to gain new insight into this topic by examining the psychological mechanism that may underlie this decreased choice effect

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