Tempt Me Just a Little Bit More: The Effect of Prior Food Temptation Actionability on Goal Activation and Consumption

Geyskens, Kelly; Dewitte, Siegfried; Pandelaere, Mario; Warlop, Luk

doi:10.1086/591106

Cited by 95 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…133 Exposure to food temptations in a supportive environment (that is, where eating the target food is socially proscribed) has also been shown to result in better self-control in a subsequent eating task. 134,135 Experimental studies suggest that this effect is mediated by enhanced salience of the weight control goal, 134 suppressed activation of the eating goal 135 and reduced wanting (but not liking) of the target food. 136 Is it possible to enhance self-regulatory capacity?…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectives On Factors Influencing Self-regulatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary restraint and self-regulation in eating behavior

2011

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Self-control is generally viewed as highly desirable. In the eating behavior domain, however, the dominance of restraint theory has made the proposition that individuals should attempt to control their eating more controversial. This review discusses evidence from the dietary restraint literature and from studies of self-regulation processes to examine how far self-imposed control around food can be seen as beneficial for effective weight management. Epidemiological and field study evidence provides little support for the proposition that restrained eating causes disinhibited eating patterns. Restraint is often initiated as a response to weight gain, and the co-occurrence of disinhibited and restrained eating patterns on an individual level might better be explained by restraint acting as a marker for overeating tendencies. A sustained effort to monitor and control food intake characterizes successful long-term weight maintenance, suggesting that self-regulation in the eating domain is essential for those with a tendency to gain weight. Evidence from the literature on cognitive self-regulation suggests that there may be potential for people to learn to self-regulate better, both through training and controlled exposure techniques. Integration of the disparate theories of self-regulation is needed to identify the best ways of promoting self-regulation in order to support effective weight control, both in clinical and community settings.

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Section: Theoretical Perspectives On Factors Influencing Self-regulatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary restraint and self-regulation in eating behavior

2011

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“…We propose that when an external agent provides healthy food, people infer that they have made progress on their health goal and subsequently activate the competing motive to satisfy their appetite. Notably, hunger ratings were similar among those who sampled an item framed as tasty compared to those in the no-sample condition, which suggests that tasty food did not intensify the motive to fulfill one's appetite (as in research on reverse-alliesthesia; Wadhwa, Shiv, and Nowlis 2008), nor did it activate the goal to restrict one's appetite (as in research on actionable temptations; Geyskens et al 2008). We did not state any prediction for imposed tasty eating, and because tasty eating had no impact relative to not sampling anything, we can conclude that imposed healthy sampling drives the increase in participants' appetite.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The desire to eat healthy thus competes with the desire to fulfill one's appetite, such that people experience a selfcontrol conflict between eating healthy and eating freely (Geyskens et al 2008;Herman and Polivy 1975;Loewenstein 1996;Muraven and Baumeister 2000;Ramanathan and Williams 2007;Stroebe et al 2008;Vohs and Faber 2007). Not only does healthy eating require certain restrictions, but people's belief that healthy food is generally less fulfilling than unhealthy alternatives further increases the conflict.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Healthy Food Makes You Hungry

Fishbach¹

2008

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Do subtle cues for imposed healthy eating make consumers hungry? Imposed healthy eating signals that the health goal was sufficiently met, and thus it increases the strength of the conflicting motive to fulfill one's appetite. Accordingly, consumers asked to sample an item framed as healthy later reported being hungrier and consumed more food than those who sampled the same item framed as tasty or those who did not eat at all. These effects of healthy eating depend on the consumer's perception that healthy eating is mandatory; therefore, only imposed healthy eating made consumers hungrier, whereas freely choosing to eat healthy did not increase hunger.E xternally imposed controls are common and help individuals adhere to their long-term interests. Thus, mandatory retirement savings, seat belt laws, compulsory physical education in college, and cafeterias that offer only healthy alternatives-all are common examples of how external controls help individuals resolve the internal conflict between options that offer larger but delayed benefits and those that offer lesser but immediate benefits. But, when external constraints lead individuals to adhere to their long-term interests, how does this influence the resultant strength of the compromised short-term interest?We explore this question in the domain of imposed healthy eating. We ask, for example, how having a healthy meal in a cafeteria that offers only healthy alternatives influences the motive to satisfy one's appetite. In particular, we examine how imposed healthy eating influences individuals' experienced hunger. We propose that because adherence to the health goal under externally imposed controls signals that progress has been made without also increasing the sense of personal commitment, it can ironically increase the strength of the competing motive to satisfy one's appetite afterward. Put simply, imposed healthy eating would make people feel hungrier than not eating at all or eating the same food without an emphasis on its healthiness. We further propose that this effect of imposed healthy eating is more pronounced among individuals who are less concerned with watching their diet, Stacey Finkelstein (sfinkels@chicagobooth.edu) is a doctoral candidate and Ayelet Fishbach (ayelet.fishbach@chicagobooth.edu) is professor of behavioral science and marketing at

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“…Because such weak cues do not appear to warrant increased vigilance in terms of dietary restraint, small temptations often 'fly under the radar', resulting in increased consumption (Coelho do Vale, Pieters, & Zeelenberg, 2008). Relatedly, research has shown that exposure to food cues that include the opportunity to consume a food results in a stronger activation of dietary restraint compared to exposure to weaker, non-actionable food cues (Geyskens, Dewitte, Pandelaere, & Warlop, 2008).…”

Section: Responses To Eating Cuesmentioning

confidence: 99%