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

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Enrico Collantoni - , University of Padua (Author)
  • Valentina Meregalli - , University of Padua (Author)
  • Umberto Granziol - , University of Padua (Author)
  • Cristiano Gerunda - , University of Padua (Author)
  • Hilmar Zech - , Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (Author)
  • Philipp A Schroeder - , University of Tübingen (Author)
  • Elena Tenconi - , University of Padua (Author)
  • Valentina Cardi - , University of Padua (Author)
  • Paolo Meneguzzo - , University of Padua (Author)
  • Matteo Martini - , University of Turin (Author)
  • Enrica Marzola - , University of Turin (Author)
  • Giovanni Abbate-Daga - , University of Turin (Author)
  • Angela Favaro - , University of Padua (Author)

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

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)106619
JournalAppetite
Volume188
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85160721638

Keywords

Keywords

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