Looking at too many food photos can cause sensory boredom, leading to a person no longer enjoy their food, researchers claim.
According to the New York Daily News, researchers from Brigham Young University suggest that looking at too many pictures of food can lead to a person enjoying their food less. The study claims that people's obsession with posting meals on Instagram or Pinterest can spoil the appetite by making them feel like they've already ate.
"In a way, you're becoming tired of that taste without even eating the food," study co-author Ryan Elder, an assistant professor of marketing at BYU's Marriot School of Management, said in a press release. "It's sensory boredom you've kind of moved on. You don't want that taste experience anymore."
Researchers asked 232 people to rate pictures of food based on how appetizing it looked. The participants were divided into two groups, half of which were shown 60 pictures of sweet foods like cake, truffles and chocolates and the other half looked at salty treats like chips, pretzels and french fries.
After rating each picture, participants finished off their experiment by eating salty peanuts and rating them, based on how much they enjoyed the snack.
Those who were shown salty foods enjoyed the peanuts less than those who were shown the sweet snacks. The same effect did not occur among those who had viewed the images of sweets, the Daily News reported.
"If you want to enjoy your food consumption experience, avoid looking at too many pictures of food," study co-author Jeff Larson, a marketing professor at the Marriot School of Management, said in a press release. "Even I felt a little sick to my stomach during the study after looking at all the sweet pictures we had."
However the study also mentioned that the effect is only responses if the individual looks at a lot of food pictures.
"You do have to look at a decent number of pictures to get these effects," Elder said. "It's not like if you look at something two or three times you'll get that satiated effect."
The study was published on Oct. 3 in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.
