Deakin University, CASS Food Research Centre, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood 3125, VIC, Australia.
Deakin University, CASS Food Research Centre, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood 3125, VIC, Australia.
Food Res Int. 2023 May;167:112645. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2023.112645. Epub 2023 Feb 26.
Online food choices are often made outside a regular food environment and suffer from sensory deprivation. The present study investigated if evoked multi-sensory stimulation can drive context specific food desires in an online environment. In a randomised between subject design, participants expressed their food desire on a visual analogue scale and feeling of presence (e.g., did you feel present on a beach) on a Likert scale, whilst looking online at a picture and reading a neutral description of a sensory laboratory (control condition), looking at a photo of a beach and reading a neutral description (beach condition), or looking at a photo of a beach and reading a sensory based description (beach + ). Participants (n = 725 participants, 622 females) who saw the beach photo increased their desire for cold, but not neutral foods (p < 0.05), those who were exposed to the sensory description in addition to the photo showed a higher desire for cold foods compared to those who just saw the beach photo (p < 0.001). These effects were modulated by an increased feeling of presence and how often participants visited the beach. Participants with a higher feeling of presence showed a higher desire for cold foods (p < 0.05). Food desires of those who visited the beach often were more impacted by the evoked sensory stimulation than food desires of those who visited the beach rarely. Food desires created in an online environment can be influenced by visual, and text based evoked sensory stimulation as long as consumers' feeling of presence in is high. The results can inform public health professionals how to impact healthy food choices in an online environment.
在线食品选择通常是在非常规的食品环境中做出的，并且会受到感官剥夺的影响。本研究调查了在在线环境中，诱发的多感官刺激是否可以驱动特定于上下文的食物欲望。在一项随机的被试间设计中，参与者使用视觉模拟量表表达他们的食物欲望，使用李克特量表表达他们的在场感（例如，你是否感觉自己置身于海滩上），同时在线查看一张图片和阅读一段关于感官实验室的中性描述（对照条件），查看海滩的照片和阅读中性描述（海滩条件），或查看海滩的照片和阅读基于感官的描述（海滩+）。参与者（n=725 名参与者，622 名女性）看到海滩照片后，增加了对冷食而非中性食物的欲望（p<0.05），与仅看到海滩照片的参与者相比，那些除了照片外还接触到感官描述的参与者对冷食的欲望更高（p<0.001）。这些影响受到在场感的增加和参与者访问海滩的频率的调节。在场感较高的参与者表现出更高的冷食欲望（p<0.05）。经常访问海滩的参与者的食物欲望比很少访问海滩的参与者的食物欲望更容易受到诱发的感官刺激的影响。只要消费者的在场感较高，在线环境中产生的食物欲望可以受到视觉和基于文本的诱发感官刺激的影响。研究结果可以为公共卫生专业人员提供信息，了解如何在在线环境中影响健康的食物选择。
