Can episodic future thinking affect food choices?

Michelle S. Segovia, Marco Palma () and Rodolfo Nayga

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2020, vol. 177, issue C, 371-389

Abstract: Episodic future thinking, defined as the ability to project oneself into the future, has proven useful to pre-experience the future consequences of present actions. We investigate how episodic future thinking influences the food choices of normal weight, overweight, and obese individuals. In doing so, we conduct a controlled laboratory experiment in which participants are presented with representations of weight-increased and weight-reduced modified images of themselves before performing a food choice task. This allows subjects to vividly imagine the future consequences of their actions. We also test the effect of providing health-related information on food choices to compare with the episodic future thinking effect. Our results suggest that while providing health-related information increases the number of lite snack choices of overweight and obese individuals, engaging in episodic future thinking has a positive impact on the food choices of the obese only. These findings are supported by eye-tracking data showing how visual attention and emotional arousal (measured by pupil size) impact individuals’ food choices.

Keywords: Episodic prospection; Eye-tracking; Food choice; Future thinking; Obesity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 D9 I1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:177:y:2020:i:c:p:371-389

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.06.019

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