The art of dieting: Exposure to thin sculptures effortlessly reduces the intake of unhealthy food in motivated eaters

Priming food intake with weight control cues: systematic review with a meta-analysis

“…All used between-subject designs except for two which used within-subject designs [ 13 , 23 ]. Eight studies were conducted in the USA [ 14 , 19 , 26 , 32 , 40 – 42 ], four in the UK [ 12 , 13 , 20 , 23 ], three in Canada [ 18 , 21 , 30 ], three in the Netherlands [ 15 , 16 , 27 ], three in Switzerland [ 9 , 11 , 43 ] two in Australia [ 10 , 29 ], two in New Zealand [ 22 , 28 ] and one in France [ 44 ].…”

“… No procedures to control for appetite between conditions; hunger was included as a covariate; Cover story used and participants who guessed the study aims were excluded; Only one example of the healthy words were provided. No test of mechanism Stampfli (2016); CH [ 43 ] Laboratory; between-subjects; four conditions – low/high cognitive load and priming/no priming (2 × 2 design; Community sample, n = 128 (26.6% males) [ n = 62 in prime condition (obtained by correspondence with author)]; Age: 46.35 (14.20); BMI not reported; 9 excluded for not fulfilling requirements of cognitive load task) Picture on computer screensaver (duration: approximately 30 s) Experimental: three thin human-like sculptures by Giacometti moving on a black background; Control: static white picture Incidental (screensaver displayed as participants entered room and chose a cubicle and seated themselves) No cue validation Crisps (n = 20) (savoury) Timing: after cue exposure, participants completed a cognitive load task and were then provided with snacks Outcome: Grams (weighed) Cognitive load: low (memorise 2 digits), high (memorise 10 digits) cognitive load. Liking for snack food: low, high snack liking Food intake was significantly lower in experimental condition compared to control regardless of cognitive load.…”

“…Of the mixed-sex samples, 42.6% were males. Eighteen studies used student samples [ 10 , 14 , 15 , 18 , 19 , 21 , 22 , 26 – 30 , 32 , 40 – 42 , 44 ], three used non-student samples [ 9 , 16 , 43 ] and five used a combination of student and non-student samples [ 11 – 13 , 20 , 23 ]. Mean age was 24.8 ± SD 9.5 years (median 20.3; range 18.6–56.0 years) (mean age unavailable for two studies [ 19 , 30 ]).…”

“…In one study timing differed for each participant [ 16 ] and in another study a lexical decision task was administered after cue exposure for half of the participants while food intake of the other half was assessed immediately after cue exposure [ 18 ]. The remaining 11 studies administered tasks in between cue exposure and food intake which consisted of a lexical decision task [ 13 , 23 , 28 ], cognitive load [ 43 ] and self-control task [ 40 ], rating the cue exposure task and completing a demographic questionnaire [ 41 ], a self-concept questionnaire [ 32 ], a filler memory task implicit mood task and weight satisfaction [ 22 ], a self-esteem task only 2 or with either a mood and image forced choice recognition task [ 27 ] or a mood and body size perception task [ 21 ]. Based on the questionnaires or tasks used, the four studies using tasks to assess mood, body satisfaction or self-esteem were classified in the meta-analysis as studies inducing negative body image or mood.…”

“…The majority of studies assessed snack intake; except for two which examined either lunch [ 42 ] or evening meal intake [ 13 ]. Of the studies providing snack foods, nine provided a sweet food: cookies [ 18 , 21 ], M&Ms. [ 14 , 15 , 22 , 44 ], chocolate [ 9 ], raisins [ 26 ] and chocolate or blueberries [ 11 ]; five studies provided savoury snacks: pretzels [ 32 ], crisps [ 41 , 43 ], crackers and pretzels [ 30 ] and meat samples [ 16 ]. Nine provided a selection of sweet and savoury foods [ 10 , 12 , 19 , 20 , 23 , 26 , 28 , 29 , 40 ].…”