Why do we overeat? Study explores the impact of distraction on food enjoyment

If you tend to do other things or get distracted during dinner, you may be at risk of overindulging in everyday pleasures later, perhaps because the distraction made you feel less satisfied, according to research published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The study examined how distraction influences "hedonic consumption," or buying and using products and experiences because they bring us pleasure, and not 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 that are good for them," said lead author Stephen Lee Murphy, Ph.D., of Ghent University.

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

To better understand the role of distraction in overconsumption, the researchers first conducted an experiment with 122 participants (mostly women and mostly between the ages of 18 and 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 high distraction (playing Tetris).

After lunch, participants reported their actual enjoyment, satisfaction, desire for additional satisfaction, and quantity consumed. They also reported 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 more general desire for additional satisfaction.

The researchers say this hypothesized effect, which they call "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 explore this broader effect beyond food. Participants completed seven brief surveys per 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 experience an increased need for further gratification.

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

Murphy and his colleagues plan to conduct further studies to reconfirm the existence of the hedonic compensation effect. If additional research confirms this 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 excess hedonic consumption, we can develop strategies to help prevent it from occurring," Murphy said.