A recent
study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology found that looking
at endless pictures of
foods makes them less enjoyable to eat.
foods makes them less enjoyable to eat.
While a few
photos might enhance desire and your appetite, people are actually put off the
taste by looking at loads of pictures of food.
Professor
Ryan Elder, who led the study, which is published in the Journal of Consumer
Psychology, said:
“In a way, you’re becoming tired of that taste
without even eating the food. It’s sensory boredom — you’ve kind of moved on.
You don’t want that taste experience any more.”
What’s
happening is that each time you look at another photograph of some food, you
get less pleasure from it.
Like the
first taste of chocolate mousse giving you a frisson, the first photograph
whets your appetite.
But each
subsequent picture - like each subsequent mouthful of mousse - is less and less
exciting, until you get sick of it.
The Instagram Diet
In the study
itself, hundreds of people looked at and rated pictures of food (Larson
et al., 2013).
The
experiment had half the participants looking at pictures of salty foods like
French fries and pretzels, while the other half looked at sweet foods like ice
cream and chocolate.
Afterwards,
they rated their pleasure from eating both salty and sweet foods.
People who’d
been looking at salty foods gave lower pleasure ratings to the salty foods and
people who’d been looking at sweet pictures gave lower ratings to the sweet
foods.
The study
found that the more pictures they looked at, the less pleasure people got from
related foods.
Professor
Elder explained:
“You do have to look at a decent number of
pictures to get these effects. It’s not like if you look at something two or
three times you’ll get that satiated effect. That’s good news for food-photo
enthusiasts, because, let’s be honest, showing everyone the awesome food you’re
eating really is cool.”
For those
trying to enhance their pleasure, rather than reduce it, co-author, Jeff
Larson, had this advice:
“If you want
to enjoy your food consumption experience, avoid looking at too many pictures
of food. Even I felt a
little sick to my stomach during the study after looking at all the sweet
pictures we had.”
I hope this helps you
to be outstanding.
One more thing before
you go......I would like you to do one important thing for me - spread the word
about this article.
That is all -
David
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