Summary: Research shows that when we evaluate the attractiveness and caloric content of foods, our judgments are influenced by our previous food choices. This effect, known as serial dependence, causes people to value the next food the same as the previous one, regardless of whether it’s more or less attractive.
This study suggests that our perceptions of food are not as independent as we think and can influence our daily decisions and behaviors. This phenomenon can inform strategies for healthier eating habits and is also relevant to food marketing and eating disorder treatment.
Important facts:
Cereal dependence influences food evaluations based on previous judgments. When a food gets a higher rating, it’s more likely that the next food will get a higher rating as well. These findings can inform marketing strategies and eating disorder treatments.
Source: University of Sydney
Research from the University of Sydney shows that we don’t judge food solely by its quality, but by what we see beforehand – a chain reaction known as ‘sequential dependence’. It became.
The study, published today in the influential journal Current Biology, was carried out by Professor David Alley and Professor Thomas Carlson from the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney, in collaboration with Professor David Barr from the University of Florence.
Their research shows that when people evaluate the attractiveness and calorie content of food images, their evaluations are not done in isolation. Rather, it is subtly biased towards previous judgments.
Sequential dependence occurs when people make a series of consecutive choices. In the food context, if you rate one food as highly appealing, you’re likely to rate the next food image more favorably, regardless of its caloric content or attractiveness.
The same applies vice versa. In other words, the current food becomes less attractive because the previous food was less appealing.
The findings could help psychologists develop treatments to help people with eating disorders eat more or less, and could help marketers present food menus. There is a possibility.
Lead author Professor Alley said: “The experimental conditions for cereal dependence are not very different from our everyday experience with food images, such as when scanning a menu for a food delivery or viewing a menu on a mobile phone. Therefore, cereal dependence is It can influence millions of food choices every day.”
Researchers conducted an experiment in which more than 600 participants rated images of different foods on both calorie content and attractiveness. The results revealed a clear pattern of serial dependence. Participants’ ratings tended to echo previous ratings.
For example, a high rating for one food item leads to a higher rating for the next food item, creating a chain reaction of interrelated rather than independent ratings.
The study found that men tended to value high-calorie foods slightly more highly than women, but the overall serial-dependent effect was independent of gender and similar for everyone.
“This study highlights the cognitive biases that influence how we evaluate food,” Professor Alley said. “Our brains are wired to assimilate information from previous stimuli, just as we are drawn to a particular dish when we see similar dishes being highly rated.”
Co-author Professor Carlson said: “Our previous research showed that the visual brain encodes the perceived caloric content of food in just a few milliseconds. In future research, we hope to explore the relationship between these cognitive biases and visual processing. It will be interesting to see the interaction.”
Beyond its immediate interest for visual neuroscientists who study how our brains process images, this research could have useful applications.
For food marketers and restaurateurs, understanding cereal dependence can inform strategies to increase the appeal of menu offerings. A series of highly appealing products or high-calorie foods can influence consumer perceptions and drive sales.
This research may also play a role in clinical practice, particularly in tackling obesity, compulsive eating, bulimia, and related eating disorders.
By recognizing how previous food evaluations influence subsequent choices, we can tailor cognitive behavioral therapy to leverage these findings and help people reshape their food perceptions and decision-making processes. may be helpful.
This approach may promote healthier eating habits and support effective interventions for people suffering from eating disorders.
Professor Alley and his team have previously found similar visual tendencies in people browsing dating apps or appreciating the beauty of works of art.
About this psychology research news
Author: Katie Spensley
Source: University of Sydney
Contact: Katie Spenceley – University of Sydney
Image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“Positive serial dependence in ratings of food images for attractiveness and calories” David Alais et al. Current Biology
abstract
Positive serial dependence in ratings of food images for attractiveness and calories.
Eating is fundamental to survival, and our brains are highly tuned to process food stimuli quickly. Neural signals differentiate food as edible or inedible 85 milliseconds after stimulus onset, processed or unprocessed from 130 milliseconds, and dense or less dense from 165 milliseconds. This shows that they can be distinguished.
Recent evidence has revealed specialized processing of food stimuli in the ventral visual pathway, an area underlying the recognition of faces and other significant objects. For many visual objects, perception can be biased toward recent perceptual history (known as serial dependence).
We investigated food series dependence in two large samples (n > 300) in which a series of food images were rated for either “attractiveness” or “calories.” Calorie ratings were highly correlated across participants and similar for men and women.
Appeal ratings varied widely across participants and tended to be higher in men than in women, consistent with the idiosyncratic nature of food preferences. High calorie ratings were associated with high attractiveness, especially in men.
Importantly, response bias showed clear positive serial dependence. Higher stimulus values in previous trials result in a positive bias and vice versa. The effects were similar for men and women, calorie and attractiveness ratings, and were surprisingly consistent across participants.
These findings are consistent with the recent discovery that food is selective in the visual temporal cortex, reveal a new mechanism that influences food decision-making, and provide new information that may complement cognitive strategies in dietary interventions. This suggests elements at a sensory level.
