Mind over Stomach: A Review of the Cognitive Drivers of Food Satiation

Satiation is the main process that determines when we stop eating; it includes the decrease in sensory enjoyment and the increase in feelings of fullness over the course of eating. The cognitive processes involved in food satiation result from complex interactions between the environment and the body. This review describes how cognition shapes consumers’ experience of satiation by following the externality-internality distinction. First, satiation is shaped by external cues related to the perception of food’s composition, variety, and quantity. The influence of these external cues suggests that satiation is mentally constructed based on expectancies and beliefs. Second, satiation depends on consumers’ awareness of, attention to, and perception of internal (or bodily) signals—whether these internal signals are experienced during a meal, remembered from a past meal, or anticipated for a future meal. This has implications for understanding the role of food marketing in hedonics and overeating. atiation is the main process that determines when we stop eating; it includes the decline in eating enjoyment and the increase in feelings of fullness over the course of a meal. Nutrition research has mostly focused on the bodily (gastric and intestinal), hormonal, and neural drivers of satiation, and how they promote energy balance. However, as increased food intake has been one of the main drivers of the obesity crisis (Swinburn, Sacks, and Ravussin 2009), it is important to understand why satiation does not always fulfill its physiological role of regulating the intake of energy. In other words, it is important to understand the cognitive—perceptual, attentional, reflective and memorial—factors that shape food satiation. In recent years, food satiation—and its cognitive drivers—has seen a surge of interest in consumer psychology research. In fact, some aspects of food satiation can be generalized to most domains of consumption, insofar as consumers’ enjoyment of products declines with repeated exposure or usage. This phenomenon is called “diminishing marginal utility” in economics, “adaptation” or “habituation” in psychology, “wearout” in advertising research, or “hedonic treadmill” in well-being research (Redden 2015). Food satiation deserves, however, specific attention because unlike most other products, food is ingested, such that the Yann Cornil ([email protected]) is an assistant professor of marketing at Mall, Vancouver BC V6T 1Z2, Canada. The author thanks Sid Mookerjee for his gr Chandon, the guest editor, and the review team for their valuable comments and search Council of Canada (SSHRC) is gratefully acknowledged. JACR, volume 2, number 4. Published online September 21, 2017. http://dx.do © 2017 the Association for Consumer Research. All rights reserved. 2378-1815 This content downloaded from 142.10 All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms cognitive processes involved in food satiation result from complex interactions between the environment and the body. This article specifically focuses on these cognitive processes. Because satiation is more an umbrella term that describes related, but not completely overlapping phenomena, the first part of this article introduces the different concepts and measurement methods of satiation. Then, this article follows the externality-internality distinction which has been at the center of most academic debates on food consumption and overeating (Schachter and Rodin 1974; Rodin 1981; Herman and Polivy 2008). According to this distinction, food consumption can be influenced by external (or environmental) cues related to food, to portion sizes, and to food marketing (Chandon and Wansink 2012), but it can also be influenced by consumers’ ability or motivation to attend to internal (or bodily) cues, and in particular hunger. Accordingly, the second part of this article focuses on how satiation is influenced by external cues— related to the perception of food’s composition, variety, and quantity. The third part focuses on the factors that influence consumers’ awareness of, attention to, and perception of internal signals of satiation—whether these internal signals are experienced during a meal, remembered from a the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, 2053 Main eat assistance in the literature review, and Johannes Boegershausen, Pierre feedback. Financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Rei.org/10.1086/693111 /2017/0204-0051$10.00 3.180.226 on October 04, 2017 14:45:50 PM and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). 000 Mind over Stomach Cornil past meal, or anticipated for a future meal. The conclusion proposes directions for future research. CONCEPTS AND MEASUREMENT