pwfm Stud & Strength

We Don't Always Eat What We Should

Have you ever gone into a restaurant thinking “salad” - and left full of “burger and fries”? Or maybe you stocked up on fruits and veggies at the grocery store, but forget all about them when it’s snack time. Well, psychologists at Duke University think they know why we don’t always eat the way we should. We found this on one of our favorite science websites, Eureka-lert.org:

• The researchers asked volunteers to order from a menu that contained three items: French fries, chicken nuggets, and a baked potato with butter and sour cream. Not the best set of choices, but, most of the volunteers did the right thing and avoided the least healthy item – the French fries.
• Then, they repeated the test, but this time the researchers added a salad to the menu. Here’s where it gets interesting. When they had a healthier choice, the majority of people ordered the fries!
• To double check the results, the researchers did the test again - with different food items. However, it didn’t make any difference. When there was no clear right choice, the volunteers avoided the worst foods, but a healthy option made them throw caution to the wind.

The scientists think something called vicarious goal fulfillment is behind the bad choices. That means that thinking about ordering the salad was enough to satisfy the ‘healthy’ goals the volunteers set – which allowed them to splurge and treat themselves with something they wouldn’t normally choose.

What’s this mean to you? You need to be careful about where you eat - because just seeing the grilled chicken salad at the burger place makes you more likely to order the supersize fries. Not all is lost. The researchers believe that being aware of vicarious goal fulfillment gives you an edge. So, before you go into a restaurant or decide to raid the fridge, remind yourself that you’re wired to make bad choices. That’ll stop you from just thinking about healthy food - and get you to eat it instead.