Easy to get, difficult to avoid: Behavioral tendencies toward high-calorie and low-calorie food during a mobile approach-avoidance task interact with body mass index and hunger in a community sample

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

  • Enrico Collantoni - , Università degli studi di Padova (Autor:in)
  • Valentina Meregalli - , Università degli studi di Padova (Autor:in)
  • Umberto Granziol - , Università degli studi di Padova (Autor:in)
  • Cristiano Gerunda - , Università degli studi di Padova (Autor:in)
  • Hilmar Zech - , Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie (Autor:in)
  • Philipp A Schroeder - , Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (Autor:in)
  • Elena Tenconi - , Università degli studi di Padova (Autor:in)
  • Valentina Cardi - , Università degli studi di Padova (Autor:in)
  • Paolo Meneguzzo - , Università degli studi di Padova (Autor:in)
  • Matteo Martini - , University of Turin (Autor:in)
  • Enrica Marzola - , University of Turin (Autor:in)
  • Giovanni Abbate-Daga - , University of Turin (Autor:in)
  • Angela Favaro - , Università degli studi di Padova (Autor:in)

Abstract

In recent years, different studies highlighted the importance of assessing behavioral tendencies toward different food stimuli in healthy and pathological samples. However, heterogeneities in experimental approaches and small sample sizes make this literature rather inconsistent. In this study, we used a mobile approach-avoidance task to investigate the behavioral tendencies toward healthy and unhealthy foods compared to neutral objects in a large community sample. The role of some contextual and stable subjective variables was also explored. The sample included 204 participants. The stimuli comprised 15 pictures of unhealthy foods, 15 pictures of healthy foods, and 15 pictures of neutral objects. Participants were required to approach or avoid stimuli by respectively pull or push the smartphone toward or away from themselves. Accuracy and reaction time of each movement were calculated. The analyses were conducted using a generalized linear mixed-effect model (GLMMs), testing the two-way interaction between the type of movement and the stimulus category and the three-way interactions between type of movement, stimulus, and specific variables (BMI, time passed since the last meal, level of perceived hunger). Our results evidenced faster approaching movement toward food stimuli but not toward neutrals. An effect of BMI was also documented: as the BMI increased, participants became slower in avoiding unhealthy compared to healthy foods, and in approaching healthy compared to unhealthy stimuli. Moreover, as hunger increased, participants became faster in approaching and slower in avoiding healthy compared to unhealthy stimuli. In conclusion, our results show an approach tendency toward food stimuli, independent from caloric content, in the general population. Furthermore, approach tendencies to healthy foods decreased with increasing BMI and increased with perceived hunger, indicating the possible influence of different mechanisms on eating-related behavioral tendencies.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummer106619
Seiten (von - bis)106619
FachzeitschriftAppetite
Jahrgang188
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 1 Sept. 2023
Peer-Review-StatusJa

Externe IDs

Scopus 85160721638

Schlagworte

Schlagwörter

  • Body Mass Index, Food, Food Preferences, Humans, Hunger, Reaction Time