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Serve Yourself from Overeating: Pre‐Served Portions Lead to Uniform Eating Across Distraction Levels
Author(s) -
Tal Aner,
Wansink Brian
Publication year - 2017
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.31.1_supplement.636.31
Subject(s) - calorie , overeating , distraction , psychology , obesity , demography , medicine , neuroscience , sociology , endocrinology
Following up on Tal et al. (2014), this study examines whether receiving pre‐plated portions, as opposed to self‐serving, changes the effects of distraction on eating. We predicted that when given pre‐plated amounts, participants would eat as much regardless of the nature of distraction Participants (N = 200) snacked on three types of snacks while watching 20 minute programs. This sample includes the Tal et al. (2014) sample as well as a separate participant sample run in parallel. Half of the participants were served pre‐plated bowls of grapes, baby‐carrots, M&Ms and cookies (150 grams each), and half served as much of each snack as they desired. Each of the two groups was divided to three: A third of participants watched action movie “The Island,” a third watched “The Island” without sound, and a third watched “The Charlie Rose Show”. We compared the amounts of snacks consumed by each condition. For participants serving themselves, quantities eaten were 104.29 grams (214.58 calories) with Charlie Rose, 142.09 grams (314.48 calories) with The Island without sound, and 206.53 grams (354.13 calories) with The Island, as reported in Tal et al. (2014). However, for those receiving pre‐plated snacks, amounts consumed showed no difference across conditions. Participants who watched Charlie Rose consumed 214.88 grams (357.19 calories), those watching The Island without sound consumed 191.46 grams (325.54 calories), and those watching The Island with sound consumed 184.73 grams (280.73 calories). The effect of pre‐plating was significant at a .003 level: F(1,194)=13.37, p=.0003. Pre‐plating participants ate more than those serving themselves (196.45 vs. 151.46 grams, 319.34 vs. 295.03 calories). There was also significant effect of viewing content at a .05 level: F(1,194)=3.09, p=.05. finally, the interaction of content and pre‐plating was significant at a .0002 level: F(2,194)=9.21, p=.0002. There was no significant difference in amounts eaten when snacks were pre‐plated. Past research has shown that participants consume more food the more distracting the content they watch (Tal et al. 2014). However, in that study participants determined their own consumption amounts. The current study showed that receiving identical pre‐plated amounts eliminates the effects of level of distraction on food consumption. Participants uniformly ate more, with no influence of program, when given pre‐plated, pre‐determined quantities of food. Receiving pre‐portioned snacks can lead to mindless eating where participants eat greater amounts of food, while serving themselves can allow consumers to monitor and curb consumption, though not when highly distracted.