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Mindless Eating and Food‐Related Decisions
Author(s) -
Payne Collin,
Wansink Brian
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a327-c
Subject(s) - overweight , meal , psychology , assertion , social psychology , normal weight , obesity , food science , developmental psychology , medicine , endocrinology , biology , computer science , programming language
People may grossly underestimate how many food and beverage related decisions they make because eating usually occurs in low‐involvement environments, which may promote “mindless eating.” A study of 139 people supports this assertion. Participants initially estimated they made 15.5 food and beverage‐related decisions throughout the day. Upon aggregating the total number of decisions they made upon greater reflection, it was found that they instead estimated 219.1 decisions, which is significantly higher, t (105) = 10.7, p < .001, than their initial estimate of 15.5. As denoted by post‐hoc analyses (Tukey's HSD), both normal weight and overweight participants reported significantly lower meal decisions (M normal = 61.1; M = 64.3over) as compared to obese participants (M obese = 120.1) (all p's < .05). Given that people dramatically underestimate the number of food and beverage related decisions they make in a day, perhaps it is not unfair to say that many people are victims of mindless eating and drinking.