The effects of food craving and desire thinking on states of motivational challenge and threat and their physiological indices

Daniel Frings,Ian P Albery,Antony C Moss,Gabriele Caselli,Guleser Eskisan,Marcantonio M Spada

doi:10.1007/s40519-018-0525-y

Daniel Frings, Ian P Albery + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0525-y

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Abstract

PurposeFood craving has been shown to induce states of psychological challenge, indexed by increases in adrenaline but not cortisol production. The study aimed to test the relationship between challenge and (1) desire thinking (the active processing of the pleasant consequences of achieving a desired target and planning how to do so) and (2) craving.MethodsParticipants (N = 61) self-reported their levels of craving and desire thinking. They were then presented with situations in which their craving would be fulfilled or not via a false feedback practice task (a wordsearch task). During this period psycho-physiological measures of challenge and threat were taken.ResultsHigher levels of craving were linked to challenge only when the craved object was likely to be obtained. Whilst anticipating reward fulfillment, higher levels of craving were linked to higher levels of desire thinking. In turn, higher levels of desire thinking were related to lower levels of challenge. In contrast, during the processes of reward fulfillment, desire thinking was linked to increased challenge (i.e., a positive indirect effect).ConclusionsCraving is linked to increased levels of psychological challenge when the object of the craving can be obtained, but it is unrelated to craving when it is not. The research also highlights the importance of desire thinking as an important, but complex, mediator in the relationship between craving and motivational states: desire thinking inhibited challenge when anticipating craving fulfillment, but encouraging it during the process of fulfillment itself.Level of evidenceI: Evidence obtained from at least one properly designed randomized controlled trial.

Highlights

Craving is defined as a powerful subjective experience that motivates people to achieve a target [1]
Randomization check The gender split within each condition can be seen in Table 1, alongside within condition means for age, desire thinking, craving and body mass index (BMI, kg/ m2)
Challenge/threat and performance Across conditions, higher levels of challenge in the anticipatory phase were related to more words being identified in the anticipatory phase, r(n = 56) = 0.37, p =

Summary

Introduction

Craving is defined as a powerful subjective experience that motivates people to achieve a target [1]. Craving has been shown to affect people’s capacity for behavioral restraint when dieting [2] and discontinuing engagement in addictive behaviors [3]. Craving has long been identified as an important contributor to behavioral loss of control and is considered a key area of treatment focus for addictive behaviors [4]. Research evidence has demonstrated that the experience of craving is qualitatively similar across a range of targets, including alcohol, food, soft drinks and tobacco [5,6,7]. Craving has been shown to be a major risk factor in triggering relapse [8] and in predicting generally worse outcomes in treatment for substance abuse [9, 10]. Tackling craving is highly clinically relevant-treatment approaches that focus on the regulation of urges have proven to be effective in reducing rates of relapse in various behavioral domains [4, 11]

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