Why do we overeat? Study examines the impact of distraction on the pleasure of eating

If you tend to do other things or get distracted while eating dinner, you may be at risk of overindulging in everyday treats later, perhaps because the distraction made you feel less pleasure, according to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The study looked at how distraction affects "hedonic consumption," or buying and using products and experiences because they bring us pleasure, rather than necessarily because we need them.

"On any given day, a person may derive great pleasure from one or more of these activities, but people often consume more hedonic goods than they wanted or than is good for them," said lead author Stephen Lee Murphy, PhD, of Ghent University.

One reason for this overconsumption may be distraction, Murphy says. When people are distracted during hedonic activities, research shows they are likely to experience less pleasure from them than if they were fully focused. This can lead to feelings of dissatisfaction and prompt them to consume more to compensate.

To better understand the role of distraction in overconsumption, the researchers first conducted an experiment with 122 participants (mostly women and mostly aged 18 to 24) who reported how much they expected to enjoy their lunch before eating it. They were then asked to eat lunch in one of three conditions: no distraction, moderate distraction (watching a video), and strong distraction (playing Tetris).

After lunch, participants reported their actual enjoyment, satisfaction, desire for additional satisfaction, and quantity consumed. They also reported their snacking later in the day.

Participants who ate while distracted reported lower levels of enjoyment and satisfaction, which was associated with increased snacking afterwards and a greater overall desire for additional satisfaction.

The researchers believe that this putative effect, which they called "hedonic compensation," likely applies to activities other than eating. For example, people who are distracted while watching a movie or playing a game may be more likely to engage in additional consumption (such as checking social media) to compensate for the decreased enjoyment of the original activity.

The researchers also followed 220 participants aged 18 to 71 (again, mostly women) for a week to examine this broader effect beyond food. Participants completed seven short surveys a day via their smartphones about their hedonic consumption, distraction, and satisfaction. As in the food experiment, the researchers found that when people were distracted while consuming, they tended to enjoy the product less than they had hoped, feel less satisfied, and have an increased need for further satisfaction.

"Overconsumption often results from a lack of self-control," Murphy said. "However, our findings suggest that overconsumption is also often driven by the simple human desire to achieve a certain level of pleasure from an activity. When distractions interfere, we likely try to compensate by consuming more."

Murphy and his colleagues plan to conduct further research to reconfirm the existence of the hedonic compensation effect. If additional research confirms the effect, they have plans to use interventions that could help people pay more attention to their consumption experiences in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of overconsumption.

"By understanding the key drivers of hedonic overconsumption, we can develop strategies to help prevent it from occurring," Murphy said.