Picture this: You sit down in a comfy booth at a loud restaurant. You take a deep breath as you settle in; it’s been a long day. As you’re deciding on what to eat, you somehow end up in the junk-food section and think to yourself, “I’m going to order the greasiest, most fat and sugar filled meal on this menu - and nobody can stop me.”
Even though you’re aware that this decision doesn’t promote your long-term health, the fried food sounds too delicious to even consider a salad. While you may scorn yourself later, for a lack of self-control, the fault doesn’t lie entirely with you.
New research shows that your cravings can be strengthened by the volume of ambient noise, and that your self-control can be weakened by distractions that deplete your cognitive resources.
You may be familiar with the concept that humans have two systems of thought; System 1 is fast, effortless, and impulsive, while System 2 is slow, effortful, and rational. The first system wants to eat junk food all the time, while the second knows that eating a salad shouldn’t be a special occasion.
PHD Danni Peng-Li designed an electroencephalography (EEG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) experiment to isolate each system and determine how the ambient sound in a room alters the influence these systems have on our food related choices.
During this regulation of craving (ROC) task, participants were asked to look at pictures of food and report their level of craving while the level of ambient noise and their decision perspective were manipulated.
- In half of the trials, subjects were told to consider the long-term effects (ex. weight gain, high cholesterol, etc.) of the foods they saw.
- The other half of the trials prompted subjects to consider the short-term effects (ex. delicious taste, texture, etc.).
As expected, when long-term effects (System 2 thinking) were considered, subjects reported significantly lower levels of craving than when they considered immediate effects (System 1 thinking). This was seen regardless of sound level.
However, when ambient volume increased, so did the level of emotional arousal in participants. This can be seen via peaks in GSR. Results showed that the loud condition led to increased emotional arousal regardless of the decision perspective.
Increased arousal was not enough to alter the strength of cravings on its own but did have a significant effect on cognitive workload. This can be measured by the power spectrum density (PSD) of the theta range (4-7Hz) in the frontal EEG electrodes. Results showed that cognitive workload was unchanged by the decision perspective when ambient noise was soft, but when the noise was loud (and emotional arousal was high), considering future decisions required significantly more work.
Danni hypothesized that this effect was a result of System 2 being overwhelmed by increased stimulation. Therefore, evidence suggested that noise in the restaurant can be distracting (via emotional arousal) and acts to deplete cognitive resources, causing people to make irrational (System 1) food choices, such as selecting cake over a salad.
This has huge implications for restaurants, as those with many unhealthy options may benefit from boosting the volume. Even restaurants that offer healthy food for high prices should consider doing the same, because an increase in cognitive workload (leading to a reduction in rational, System 2 thinking), is likely to also reduce the hesitancy caused by high costs.
If you’re trying to make healthy choices the next time you go out to eat, keep in mind that it may be more difficult at the bustling bistro than the quiet eatery around the corner.
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