Tomorrow we’ll start eating healthily

PLG Weijzen (1,2), GB Dijksterhuis (2,3), C de Graaf (1)

1 Wageningen University, Division of Human Nutrition, The Netherlands;

2 Wageningen University and Research Centre, Agrotechnology and Food Innovations, The Netherlands;

3 Marketing science, Faculty of Economics, University of Groningen, the Netherlands

 pascalle.weijzenwur.nl

Background: Of the people with positive intentions to engage in health behaviours, many do not succeed in translating those intentions into actions.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to determine the size of this ‘intention-behaviour gap’ (Sheeran, 2002) in snack choice behaviour, and to which extent hunger status and personality traits would affect its size.

Products: Participants chose between 4 snacks that had either been judged as healthy (apples and bananas) or unhealthy (‘stroopwafels’ and snickers) in a pilot study (N=35).

Design: The dependent measure was the difference between intentional snack choice (choice one week before consumption) and immediate choice (choice for immediate consumption). Intentional choices were made when all participants (N=400) would be satiated, after lunch, while immediate choices were made when participants would be either hungry (3.30pm) (N=200) or satiated (after lunch) (N=200). After immediate choice, participants completed a web-based questionnaire on health consciousness, restrained eating behaviour, age, gender and BMI.

Results: We expected that the proportion of choices for healthy snacks would be larger for intentional choice than for immediate choice. Moreover, we predicted that the proportion of changers from a healthy to an unhealthy snack would be larger in individuals who are hungry compared to satiated (cf. Read and Van Leeuwen, 1998).

Discussion: For future consumption, individuals tend to prefer healthy snacks, products with delayed rewards, while for immediate consumption they tend to switch their preference to unhealthy snacks, products with immediate rewards. This gap between healthy choices for future and immediate consumption is even more pronounced for individuals who are in a ‘hot’ visceral state (Loewenstein, 1996) (hungry), compared to individuals who are in a ‘cold’ visceral state (satiated) at the moment of consumption.

Key words: delayed food choice, snacks, visceral states, personality traits

References

Loewenstein G (1996) Out of control: Visceral influences on behaviour. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 65: 272-292

Read D and Van Leeuwen B (1998) Predicting hunger: the effects op appetite and delay on choice. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 76: 189-205

Sheeran P (2002) Intention-behaviour relations: A conceptual and empirical review. In: Strobe W and Hewstone M (eds), European Review of Social Psychology Chichester: Wiley: vol 12, pp: 1-30