Maybe those commercials with the juicy hamburgers aren't driving us to the local burger joint after all. Then again, it may only be still images. A recent BYU study found that participants experienced decreased appetite following too many viewings of a particular food item.
"In a way, you're becoming tired of that taste without even eating the food," said study co-author Ryan Elder on BYU's website. "It's sensory boredom - you've kind of moved on. You don't want that taste experience anymore."
Elder and fellow researcher Jeff Larson's study shows us that just by looking at a food item, we are experiencing it in deeper ways. Additionally, novelty is a big aspect of appetite. When we become "oversatiated" with a particular stimulus, we lose enjoyment, the study noted.
The two researchers based their findings on 223 participants, according to the BYU article. Basically, participants were either exposed to salty foods or non-salty foods. Afterwards, all participants were given salty peanuts to eat and asked to rate how much they enjoyed them. Those who viewed the salty foods - even though there were shown no pictures of peanuts - rated their snack as less enjoyable than those who viewed the non-salty foods.
The researchers pointed out, however, that it takes many viewings to achieve the results of their study.
"You do have to look at a decent number of pictures to get these effects," Elder said. "It's not like if you look at something two or three times you'll get that satiated effect."
The study has real world applications.
"If you want to enjoy your food consumption experience, avoid looking at too many pictures of food," Larson said. "Even I felt a little sick to my stomach during the study after looking at all the sweet pictures we had."
According to the BYU article, Larson and Elder published their work in the Journal of Consumer Psycholgoy.
