Thought for Food: Imagined Consumption Reduces Actual Consumption

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Thought for Food: Imagined Consumption Reduces Actual Consumption

Carey K. Morewedge1,*, Young Eun Huh2 and Joachim Vosgerau2

+ Author Affiliations

Science 10 December 2010:

Vol. 330 no. 6010 pp. 1530-1533

DOI: 10.1126/science.1195701

Abstract

The consumption of a food typically leads to a decrease in its subsequent intake

through habituation—a decrease in one's responsiveness to the food and

motivation to obtain it. We demonstrated that habituation to a food item can

occur even when its consumption is merely imagined. Five experiments showed that

people who repeatedly imagined eating a food (such as cheese) many times

subsequently consumed less of the imagined food than did people who repeatedly

imagined eating that food fewer times, imagined eating a different food (such as

candy), or did not imagine eating a food.

They did so because they desired to eat it less, not because they considered it

less palatable.

These results suggest that mental representation alone can engender habituation

to a stimulus.

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Carruthers

wakefield, uk