Food as an eye-catcher. An eye-tracking study on Children's attention to healthy and unhealthy food presentations as well as non-edible objects in audiovisual media

BACKGROUND Food presentations within media content are often made responsible for todays' obesity epidemic. This assessment is based on the assumption that food presentations create cue reactivity, which in turn affects the amount of food intake. OBJECTIVE This study investigates children's implicit reactions (cue reactivity) toward healthy, unhealthy, and non-ediblel objects. METHODS We conducted an experimental eye-tracking study comparing children's cue reactivity assessed with visual attention toward healthy and unhealthy food presentations, as well as non-edible objects. We controlled for the role of children's hunger, body mass index (BMI), and age. RESULTS Results indicated no difference between healthy and unhealthy food presentations, yet food generally aroused more visual attention in children compared to non-edible objects. Explicit memory for the embedded foods or objects was mediated through visual attention. However, unhealthy food presentations also directly affected children's explicit memory. CONCLUSIONS Compared to non-edible objects, food presentations seem to be eye-catchers that immediately grab children's attention and they are also able to maintain this attention. Yet, for unhealthy food presentations, memory seems to be less dependent on visual attention. That is, compared to healthy products or non-edible objects, unhealthy food presentations do not require the same amount of visual attention in order to be remembered.