You are busy at work, very focused and nothing could distract you … Oh! Has anyone brought donuts? If it sounds familiar, don’t feel too guilty. According to the study carried out by the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA), junk food is a great distraction , even when we are at our maximum point of concentration. When it comes to sugar vs. vegetables, the former always wins out in terms of diverting our attention.
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not eaten well, ” said the writer Virginia Wolf. And is that many of us have a similar relationship with food, with that feeling of satisfaction and joy that intoxicates us right after enjoying a delicious meal or a tasty snack.
Unfortunately, we seem to be more attracted to foods that can harm our health if we eat too much , because products that are high in fat or sugar are more likely to activate the brain’s reward system. But how much do they distract us?
Starting from this question, the researchers conducted two experiments. The first included 18 participants who were required to participate in a “distraction paradigm” exercise, which aimed to determine how food diverted attention from a complex computerized test. Food-related images appeared on the screen for just 125 milliseconds, which the researchers say is too little time to discern exactly everything they’ve seen, but enough time for the brain to process visual information.
The food images included photos of high-fat and high-calorie products (such as chocolate, cheese, candy, and pizzas), as well as healthy foods, such as carrots, lettuce, and apples.
The researchers found that all the images diverted the subjects’ attention in the computer test; however, images of foods high in fat and sugar were twice as distracting as images of healthy foods and inedible objects.
“This suggests that participants quickly and implicitly assessed the nutritional value of distracting images presented to them, even when they were completely irrelevant,” says Corbin A. Cunningham, a co-author of the work published in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.
Do not go shopping hungry
For the second experiment, the researchers had 18 new participants. The task was the same as in the first experiment, except for the fact that the participants consumed two small chocolate bars just before starting. The experts found that these subjects were not as distracted as the previous ones by the images of foods high in fat and calories, because the consumption of this sweet before the experiment reduced the craving for tasty food, speculates Howard E. Egeth, co-author of the study .
“Recent research has shown that when an ordinarily rewarding stimulus like chocolate is devalued, attention is no longer directed toward this reward-associated stimulus,” says Egeth.
So what are the implications of this study? The researchers believe their results certainly support the theory that we should avoid going to the supermarket on an empty stomach.
Referencia: The capture of attention by entirely irrelevant pictures of calorie-dense foods Corbin A. Cunningham y Howard E.Egeth. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 2017 DOI: doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1375-8
