Evaluative Processing of Food Images: Longer Viewing for Indecisive Preference Formation

Abstract

The well-known gaze cascade hypothesis proposes that as people look longer at an item, they tend to show an increased preference for it. However, using single food images as stimuli, we recently obtained results that clearly deviated from the general proposal that the gaze both expresses and influences preference formation. Instead, the pattern of data depended on the self-determination of exposure duration as well as the type of evaluation task. In order to disambiguate how the type of evaluation determines the relationship between viewing and liking we conducted the present follow-up study, with a fixed response set size as opposed to the varying set sizes in our previous study. In non-exclusive evaluation tasks, subjects were asked how much they liked individual food images. The recorded response was a number from 1 to 3. In exclusive evaluation tasks, subjects were asked for each individual food image to give one of three response options toward a limited selection: include it, exclude it, or defer the judgment. When subjects were able to determine the exposure duration, both the non-exclusive and exclusive evaluations produced inverted U-shaped trends such that the polar ends of the evaluation (the positive and negative extremes) were associated with relatively short viewing times, whereas the middle category had the longest viewing times. Thus, the data once again provided firm evidence against the notion that longer viewing facilitates preference formation. Moreover, the fact that non-exclusive and exclusive evaluation produced similar inverted U-shaped patterns suggests that the response set size is the critical factor that accounts for the observations here versus in our previous study. When keeping the response set size constant, with an equal opportunity to observe inverted U-shaped patterns, the findings are suggestive of a role for the level of decisiveness in determining the length of viewing time. For items that can be categorically identified as positive or negative, the evaluations are soon completed, with relatively brief viewing times. The prolonged visual inspection for the middle category may reflect doubt or uncertainty during the evaluative processing, possibly with an increased effort of information integration before reaching a conclusion.

Tracking the Influence of Predictive Cues on the Evaluation of Food Images: Volatility Enables Nudging

“…Interestingly, this notion of extra information integration under doubt is also compatible with other findings from our laboratory on the cognitive mechanisms underlying the evaluation of food images. Particularly, across two connected studies, Wolf et al (2018Wolf et al ( , 2019 found that subjects tended to gaze longer at images for which they felt uncertain about the evaluation, completely against the prevailing notion in the literature that "viewing leads to liking." Again, the finding of longer gazing at items that are not clearly liked or disliked can be interpreted in terms of volatility.…”

Recent updates of eye movement abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia: A scoping review

“…Clarifying aspects of brain circuitry by illustrating the complex interplay between vision and cognition, 62 eye movement measurements are actively performed in interdisciplinary laboratories that integrate contributions from psychology, neuroscience, economy, philosophy and computer science. A vast number of efficient and well‐grounded behavioral experimental paradigms have been generated regarding sincerity, 63 magic‐tricks, 64, 65 judgmental tasks, 66–71 moral dilemma, 72 reading, 73–76 visual search, 77–79 gambling, 80 daily‐life activities, 81–86 problem‐solving, 39, 87–89 learning 90 and discrete choice in clinical decision‐making 91 . Vision science becomes actively adopted in neuromarketing, aiming to reveal valuable information about consumers’ decisions, as well as answer the question of how to hack the consumer's internal ‘purchase button’ 92–96 …”

Transparent Windows on Food Packaging Do Not Always Capture Attention and Increase Purchase Intention

“…Therefore, the gaze may not necessarily lead to more liking but contribute to the evaluative processing by integrating extra information. As Wolf et al (2019) suggested, the prolonged viewing time for the middle category may reflect doubt or uncertainty during the evaluative processing, potentially with an increased effort of information integration before reaching a conclusion.…”

“…This means that long gaze duration does not necessarily lead to a final purchase decision (see also Balcombe et al, 2017 ; Wolf et al, 2019 ). Wolf et al (2019) found that the relationship between gaze time and three options [i.e., the exclusive evaluation task contains rejection, deferment, and inclusion; the non-exclusive evaluation task contains 1 (“not at all”), 2 (neutral), and 3 (“very much”)] from participants who presented an inverted U-shaped trend. Therefore, the gaze may not necessarily lead to more liking but contribute to the evaluative processing by integrating extra information.…”