Food-related advertisements and food intake among adult men and women

• Published in: Appetite Vol. 71; pp. 57 - 62
• Main Authors: Wonderlich-Tierney, Anna L., Wenzel, Kevin R., Vander Wal, Jillon S., Wang-Hall, Jennifer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2013
• Subjects: Adolescent; Advertisements; Advertising as Topic; Body Mass Index; Cross-Sectional Studies; Eating - psychology; Feeding Behavior - psychology; Female; Food; Humans; Male; Obesity; Obesity - epidemiology; Obesity - psychology; Prevalence; Sex; Sex Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires; Television; Transportability; Young Adult; Obesity; Television; Advertisements; Transportability; Sex; Food
• ISSN: 0195-6663; 1095-8304
• DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2013.07.009

•Examined the role of TV advertisements, sex, and transportability on food intake.•Transportability is the tendency to become absorbed in a narrative.•Persons high in transportability ate more in the food advertisement condition.•Women high in transportability, versus low, ate more.•No main effects of TV advertisements, gender, or transportability were found. Television viewing may contribute to obesity via promotion of sedentary behavior and exposure to food-related commercials. However, the mechanisms by which food-related commercials promote food intake are not well understood. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of television advertisements on food intake according to sex and transportability, or the tendency to become engrossed in what one is viewing. Eighty-three undergraduate students, free of disordered eating symptoms, were stratified by sex and randomly assigned to one of three conditions (food-related advertisements, neutral advertisements, or no advertisements). They were then identified as high or low in transportability according to a median split. A significant interaction was found between advertisement condition and transportability such that those high in transportability ate more in the food than other advertisement conditions. A second interaction was found between sex and transportability with women high in transportability eating more food than women low in transportability irrespective of advertisement condition. No significant main effects of advertisement condition, sex, or transportability were found. Results suggest the importance of studying the impact of individual difference variables on the relationship between food-related advertising and food intake.