Researchers at the University of Sydney have discovered that our food choices are heavily influenced by what we’ve seen before, a phenomenon known as “serial dependence.” This study explores how our visual perception and cognitive biases shape our perceptions of food appeal and calorie content, with potential implications for food marketing and the treatment of eating disorders. Cognitive biases and visual perception play a crucial role in our daily food decisions.
The Power of Perception
It looks like we are not judging the food directly on what it does for us. As described in Current Biology, it turns out that when we rate food based on what we’ve seen and rated just before, there is a subtle bias going on within our view. In other words, when we rate a good treat as even nicer, the second treat benefits — in terms of encoded appeal and increased calorie intake potential — kiss-in-blow-fallout style.
The researchers performed several experiments with more than 600 participants, who rated images of different foods for appeal and calorie content. The results showed a definite trend that peoples ratings tended to echo their judgments in previous questionings. One food item received a high rating, and that led to a subsequently higher rating for the next, thus setting off a cascade of bot-intertwined evaluations rather than separate ones.
Influencing Food Choices
What it Means for Food Marketers & Restauranteurs If restauranteurs possessed the knowledge of this serial dependence it could allow them to order their menu items in a specific fashion that would shape consumer thoughts and thus increase sales. In one example, the ordering of high-appeal or calorie-dense foods in a sequence might sway the verdicts of people and cause that to cascade.
Outside of the marketing realm, these findings could also become useful in a clinical setting and when it comes to tackling eating disorders. This understanding of how old food information can influence decisions about what to eat and the experience of eating could be used to inform cognitive behavior therapies that assist individuals in changing their perceptions about food and decision-making mechanisms related to it. This could help normalizing healthier eating habits and being put into context with existing interventions for obese, compulsive eaters or people suffering from bulimia.
Uncovering the Brain’s Biases
Researchers behind the study have also identified similar visual trends in other research areas, such as what people consider attractive in online dating profiles or of artworks. This points to the brain´s propensity of trying to incorporate information from earlier stimuli as general cognitive property (affecting more than food).
” The way we perceive the world *is* biased by the discards of recent stimuli, just as we will be more attracted to a dish after rating highly on one very like it,” said lead author Professor David Alais. In addition, the researchers observed that men scored high calorie foods a little more highly than women did in general, but this dependency effect was not dependent on sex.
Taken together, these findings reveal the intricate relationship shared by food with visual processing, cognitive biases and decision-making. Understanding these mechanisms can in turn offer particularly meaningful takeaways regarding how to encourage better eating behaviors and smarter nutritional intake.
