Masicampo E J, Baumeister Roy F
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4301, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2008 Mar;19(3):255-60. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02077.x.
This experiment used the attraction effect to test the hypothesis that ingestion of sugar can reduce reliance on intuitive, heuristic-based decision making. In the attraction effect, a difficult choice between two options is swayed by the presence of a seemingly irrelevant "decoy" option. We replicated this effect and the finding that the effect increases when people have depleted their mental resources performing a previous self-control task. Our hypothesis was based on the assumption that effortful processes require and consume relatively large amounts of glucose (brain fuel), and that this use of glucose is why people use heuristic strategies after exerting self-control. Before performing any tasks, some participants drank lemonade sweetened with sugar, which restores blood glucose, whereas others drank lemonade containing a sugar substitute. Only lemonade with sugar reduced the attraction effect. These results show one way in which the body (blood glucose) interacts with the mind (self-control and reliance on heuristics).
摄入糖分可以减少对基于直觉、启发式的决策方式的依赖。在吸引力效应中，两个选项之间的艰难抉择会受到一个看似无关的“诱饵”选项的影响。我们重复了这一效应，并且发现当人们在完成先前的自我控制任务后耗尽了心理资源时，该效应会增强。我们的假设基于这样的假定：费力的认知过程需要并消耗相对大量的葡萄糖（大脑的燃料），而正是这种对葡萄糖的消耗导致人们在进行自我控制后使用启发式策略。在执行任何任务之前，一些参与者饮用了加糖的柠檬水，这可以恢复血糖，而其他参与者则饮用了含有糖替代品的柠檬水。只有加糖的柠檬水降低了吸引力效应。这些结果显示了身体（血糖）与思维（自我控制和对启发式的依赖）相互作用的一种方式。
