Depletion sensitivity predicts unhealthy snack purchases☆
Section snippets
Depletion sensitivity
The construct of depletion sensitivity is based on the ego-depletion paradigm, which refers to the limited human capacity to exert self-control (Baumeister et al., 1998, Baumeister et al., 2007). After an initial act of self-control, such as inhibiting one's emotional expressions, people are said to be ‘depleted’, meaning that they lack the capacity (Baumeister et al., 1998, Muraven and Baumeister, 2000, Muraven et al., 1998) or motivation (Inzlicht and Schmeichel, 2012, Inzlicht et al., 2014)
The present study
In the present study, participants' goals to eat healthily and to lose weight will be included as additional predictors for exploratory reasons. That is, by including these predictors, we aim to provide an initial test of two additional, competing hypotheses; On the one hand it can be expected that depletion sensitivity is most likely to affect food choices for individuals with a strong long-term health or weight loss goal as the presence of such a goal is necessary for the experience of a
Participants and procedure
Participants were recruited via the website of the Netherlands Nutrition Center and could sign up for participation via email. After sign up, participants received a 7 day snack diary (Adriaanse, De Ridder, & De Wit, 2009) and a questionnaire via postal mail. One hundred eighty seven individuals signed up, and one hundred and eight individuals participated and returned their diaries by free postal mail. We excluded 12 participants who did not complete the entire study, as they did not fill out
Descriptives and correlations
Participants on average bought 7.49 snacks over the entire week (SD = 6.39), including 3.97 (SD = 3.89) healthy products and 3.52 (SD = 3.98) unhealthy products. Of all reported purchase moments (580 purchase moments in total), most of these products were bought in the supermarket (72.8%), and 27.2% were bought at other places, such as restaurants, kiosks and canteens.
Participants were moderately sensitive to ego-depletion (M = 3.72, SD = 1.12) and had a moderately high level of trait
Discussion
The present research investigated the effect of depletion sensitivity on unhealthy and healthy food purchases using a one-week daily registration of real-life snack purchase behavior. Findings showed that the more sensitive people are to ego-depletion, the more unhealthy snacks they bought. These findings are in line with a previous lab study, in which we demonstrated that depletion sensitivity moderates the ego-depletion effect, such that the ego-depletion effect was stronger for individuals
References (37)
- et al.
Repeated choosing increases susceptibility to affective product features
International Journal of Research in Marketing
(2006) - et al.
And deplete us not into temptation: automatic attitudes, dietary restraint, and self-regulatory resources as determinants of eating behavior
Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology
(2007) - et al.
Free to buy? Explaining self-control and impulse in consumer behavior
Journal of Consumer Psychology
(2008) - et al.
Why self-control seems (but may not be) limited
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
(2014) - et al.
Dieting as a case of behavioural decision making. Does self-control matter?
Appetite
(2008) - et al.
Self-control constructs related to measures of dietary intake and physical activity in adolescents
Journal of Adolescent Health
(2007) - et al.
Finding the critical cue: implementation intentions to change one's diet work best when tailored to personally relevant reasons for unhealthy eating
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
(2009) - et al.
Effortless inhibition: habit mediates the relation between self-control and unhealthy snack consumption
Frontiers in Psychology
(2014) - et al.
Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions
(1991) - et al.
Self-regulatory strength
Yielding to temptation: self-control failure, impulsive purchasing, and consumer behavior
Journal of Consumer Research
Ego depletion: is the active self a limited resource?
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
The strength model of self-control
Current Directions in Psychological Science
A series of meta-analytic tests of the depletion effect: self-control does not seem to rely on a limited resource
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Publication bias and the limited strength model of self-control: has the evidence for ego depletion been overestimated?
Frontiers in Psychology
Statistical power analysis
Current Directions in Psychological Science
Taking stock of self-control: a meta-analysis of how trait self-control relates to a wide range of behaviors
Personality and Social Psychology Review
Consumer preference for a no-choice option
Journal of Consumer Research
Cited by (12)
Does a grill menu redesign influence sales, nutrients purchased, and consumer acceptance in a worksite cafeteria?
2017, Preventive Medicine ReportsCitation Excerpt :Despite these successes, ongoing self-regulation can be depleting, leaving people vulnerable to failures of self-control (Heshmat, 2015). Because a person's ability to regularly refuse less healthy, but tasty foods diminishes with frequent temptation, having these foods readily available hinders individual and public health efforts to improve diet quality (Salmon et al., 2016). Thus, modifying the options available to consumers may improve diet quality more than nutrition education by requiring consumers to exert less restraint.
Health action process approach: Promoting physical activity, and fruit and vegetable intake among Australian adults
2023, Health Promotion InternationalIs altering the availability of healthier vs. less-healthy options effective across socioeconomic groups? A mega-analysis
2022, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical ActivityChildhood Trauma and Self-Control: The Mediating Role of Depletion Sensitivity
2021, Journal of Child and Family StudiesEgo depletion sensitivity as the mediator between avoidance temperaments and subjective vitality
2021, Polish Psychological BulletinVegetable interventions at unconventional occasions: the effect of freely available snack vegetables at workplace meetings on consumption
2021, International Journal of Workplace Health Management
- ☆
The work in this article was supported by ZonMW Grant 115100002 from the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development.