Study: We'll Enjoy Food More If You Don't Instagram It

Imagining eating something provides a sense of satiety.

(Courtesy Brigham Young University)

Methodology:  The researchers hypothesized that imagining enjoying something might lead to satiation—the feeling that makes the second piece of cake taste not-quite-as-good as the first. To test this, they had undergraduates participate in two experiments that they were told were separate—one in which they rated how appetizing different photos of food looked, and one in which they ate some peanuts and rated how much they enjoyed them.
A separate group of people did the same experiment again, but in the photo-rating portion, some were asked to rate how appetizing the food was or to choose a preference between two foods, and some were asked to rate the brightness of the photo itself.
Results: The more photos of food people looked at, the less they enjoyed the peanuts—if they were looking at photos of salty food. People who perused images of sweets enjoyed the peanuts more, suggesting that imagination causes satiation only if you’re imagining a similar food. In the second experiment, participants who focused on the brightness of the photos were able to enjoy the peanuts more than those who were thinking about the deliciousness of foods while they looked at the images.
Implications: You’ll probably enjoy your food more if you don’t take a picture of it, or scroll through images of burritos at work and then eat one when you get home. This also has potential implications for advertisers, who may unknowingly be giving away satiation for free when they dangle tantalizing images of chicken wings or whatever in front of us all day long. But luckily the study provides a loophole for determined Instagrammers: Try not to think about the food’s taste while you take a photo—just focus on your composition.

The study, "Satiation from sensory simulation: Evaluating foods decreases enjoyment of similar foods," appeared in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Fonte: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/study-well-enjoy-food-more-if-you-dont-instagram-it/280436/
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