Ever wonder why you randomly crave that Big Mac after seeing it advertised during your daily commute? Ever heard someone say you shouldn’t go grocery shopping while you’re hungry?
Turns out that junk food can be twice as distracting to people trying to complete a task as other foods.
The study, published by Johns Hopkins University, gave participants a computer task unrelated to food. During the task, photos flashed on the screen for about 125 milliseconds. The photos included random objects, such as bicycles and foods like carrots and apples, and junk foods like candies and chips.
The results were clear: when images of high-fat, high-calorie foods appeared, participants were twice as distracted as they were when photos of healthy foods appeared.
The researchers also took another route with the experiment. Before the task, they gave each participant a candy bar. When this happened, people were no more distracted by junk food photos than by any other photos.
After eating, the participants were less distracted by food and were able to more easily complete the task in front of them.
The task had nothing to do with food at all, which is maybe why food ads are everywhere, serving as a tool to get you to buy that Big Mac.
Find the full study here.
