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

Abstract

Purpose Food 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. Methods Participants (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. Results Higher 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). Conclusions Craving 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 evidence I: Evidence obtained from at least one properly designed randomized controlled trial.

Integrating Desire Thinking into the I-PACE Model: a Special Focus on Internet-Use Disorders

“…As with other affective and cognitive processes specific for addictive disorders (e.g., craving, cue reactivity), desire thinking is observable among substance-use disorders as well as addictive behaviors and internet-use disorders, respectively. It has been investigated in the context of problem alcohol drinking [8,[14][15][16][17][18][19] next to a few studies on tobacco use [5,20,21] and eating behaviors [22][23][24] and successively gains an attentional focus among addictive behaviors (for a meta-analysis, see [25•]) and specific internet-use disorders. As such, it has been investigated in the context of gaming [26][27][28][29], pornography viewing [27,30], social networks use [20,27], shopping and gambling [27], and the general use of the internet [5, 7, 31•, 32, 33], indicative of its relevance among (potentially problematic) online behaviors.…”