An event-related potential study of consumers' responses to food bundles. (1st April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Qiu, Ruyi; Qi, Yuxuan; Wan, Xiaoang
• Is Part Of: Appetite. Volume 147(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-04-01
• Subjects: Food wanting -- Bundles -- Variety seeking -- N2 -- P1; Food habits -- Periodicals; Appetite -- Periodicals; Appetite disorders -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 306.4613
• DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2019.104538
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0195-6663

Abstract

Abstract: We conducted two event-related potentials (ERP) experiments to investigate consumers' responses to different types of food bundles. In Experiment 1, the participants were instructed to indicate their wanting of a three-yogurt bundle when their neural activity was recorded. The results of self-report wanting scores revealed that the participants wanted bundles consisting of their favorite yogurt products more than those of disliked products. Such a difference in self-report scores was also indexed by the N2 in frontal brain and the P1 in the left hemisphere. By contrast, bundles consisting of three different yogurt products elicited a smaller amplitude of the N2 than bundles consisting of two favorite products and one disliked product, but these two types of bundles received comparable wanting scores. Moreover, we asked the participants in Experiment 2 to perform a visual discrimination task on these bundles, and did not found these effects on the N2 or the P1. Collectively, these results revealed neural activities underlying consumers' responses to food rewards, and demonstrated the role of individuals' variety-seeking tendency in wanting process.