Department of Psychology, Yale University, USA.
Health Psychol. 2012 May;31(3):398-401. doi: 10.1037/a0027221. Epub 2012 Feb 6.
To discover a scalable method of food-packaging presentation, which can help reduce per occasion food consumption by making portions sizes more salient and segmented.
Two studies of American undergraduates who ate from tubes of potato chips while watching a movie. In each study, participants ate chips that were either identical (the control group) or which had colored chips inserted at regular intervals (the treatment groups). One treatment group had a distinctively different (reddish) chip present at every 7th (Study 1) or 5th (Study 2) chip, and the 2nd treatment group had one present every 14th (Study 1) or 10th (Study 2) chip. Measures were the number of chips consumed and (in Study 1) the participants estimates of how many they believed they consumed.
In both studies, chip consumption was reduced by more than 50%, averaging across the 2 segmentation intervals, with no significant difference between the 2 intervals. Estimates of amount consumed were much more accurate when there was segmentation.
Segmenting a package effectively reduced consumption in the settings we have explored. Segmentation cues may operate by any or all of 3 mechanisms: (a) they call attention to and encourage better monitoring of eating, (b) they suggest smaller consumption (portion size) norms, or (c) they break automated eating sequences by introducing a pause. There is some evidence from the 1st study that provides evidence for the 1st, monitoring account.
探索一种可规模化的食品包装呈现方式，通过使份量更突出和分段，帮助减少每次食用的食物量。
对观看电影时从管状薯片包装中进食的美国大学生进行了两项研究。在每项研究中，参与者食用的薯片要么完全相同（对照组），要么每隔一定间隔插入彩色薯片（处理组）。一组处理有一个独特的（红色）薯片每隔 7 片（研究 1）或 5 片（研究 2）出现一次，另一组处理每隔 14 片（研究 1）或 10 片（研究 2）出现一次。测量的是食用的薯片数量，以及（在研究 1 中）参与者估计他们食用的数量。
在两项研究中，薯片的食用量都减少了 50%以上，平均在两个分段间隔内，两个间隔之间没有显著差异。当有分段时，对所食用数量的估计要准确得多。
在我们所探索的环境中，有效分段包装可显著减少食用量。分段提示可能通过以下三种机制中的任意一种或全部发挥作用：（a）它们引起注意并鼓励更好地监测进食；（b）它们暗示较小的消费（份量）规范；或（c）它们通过引入停顿来打破自动进食序列。第一项研究提供了一些证据，支持了第一种即监测解释。
