The Power of Food Advertisements: A Brief Mindfulness Instruction Does Not Prevent Psychophysiological Responses Triggered by Food Ads

Journal
Brain Sciences
ISSN
2076-3425
Date Issued
2025-02-25
Author(s)
Constanza Baquedano
David Martinez-Pernia
Vicente Soto
Álvaro Rivera-Rei
Antonia Zepeda
Alejandra Vasquez-Rosati
Eugenio J. Guzmán-Lavín
Carla Ugarte
Antonio Cepeda-Benito
Vladimir Lopez
Type
journal-article
DOI
URL
URL Institutional Repository
Abstract
Exposure to visually appealing food items can enhance their subjective realism, leading to increased cravings, salivation, and automatic approach tendencies. Prior research suggests that brief mindfulness instructions promoting dereification—recognizing stimuli as transient mental events—can mitigate these automatic reactions. Objectives: This study assesses whether brief mindfulness instruction can mitigate automatic consumption tendencies induced by food advertisements, exploring the corresponding behavioral, physiological, and neurophysiological mechanisms. Methods: Sixty participants were randomly assigned to two groups: one receiving brief mindfulness instruction and the other a non-dereifying control instruction while exposed to advertised foods. This was followed by an approach–avoidance task (AAT), during which behavioral data, salivary volume, event-related potentials (ERPs) from electroencephalogram recordings, and self-reports were collected. Results: The results showed no significant differences in approach behaviors between the groups. Hunger, food craving, and salivation levels increased uniformly in response to food cues for both groups. The N1, N2, P3, and late positive potential (LPP) ERPs remained unaltered by the instructions and consistent with the established AAT literature. Advertising heightened the appeal of neutral foods, as evidenced by increased N2, P3, and LPP responses. Conclusions: The brief mindfulness instruction failed to shield participants from the automatic responses elicited by food advertising, contrasting with the effects seen with non-advertised food.
Project(s)
Subjects
adult

; 

advertising

; 

approach avoidance task

; 

article

; 

behavior assessment

; 

body mass

; 

controlled study

; 

craving

; 

dietary intake

; 

dutch eating behavior questionnaire

; 

electroencephalogram

; 

electroencephalography

; 

electrophysiology

; 

event related potential

; 

female

; 

food advertisement

; 

human

; 

human experiment

; 

likert scale

; 

male

; 

mindfulness

; 

neurophysiology

; 

prophylaxis

; 

psychophysiology

; 

questionnaire

; 

self report

; 

task performance

; 

young adult

; 

advertised food

; 

approach–avoidance tendencies

; 

dereification

; 

erps

; 

mindfulness

; 

salivation

; 

subjective realism