Ned Sonntag
Outermost Hoodoo Doctor
Appetite for candy comes down to dish and distance:eat1:
October 20, 2005
Who are these presumptuous wankers calling themselves the Obesity Society?
Why didn't someone here copyright that name decades ago? We could still be the Obesity League, couldn't we?
BY MARILYNN MARCHIONE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VANCOUVER, Canada -- Scientists studying candy-jar psychology have confirmed what most of us know instinctively: Out of sight is out of mind.
Secretaries who were given Hershey kisses:smitten: ate more of them when the jars were clear or on their desks than when the chocolates were in opaque containers or placed a short distance away.
"It should make us think about what we're doing" to undermine people's willpower, said Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the weight-control program at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and president of the Obesity Society , which held a conference where the research was presented Tuesday.
The study was led by Brian Wansink, a Cornell University food marketing and eating behavior expert. Aronne said it was one of the few experiments to quantify temptation:kiss2: .
Wansink and his colleagues gave 40 university secretaries 30 chocolate kisses in a clear or an opaque candy jar placed on their desks or 6 feet away. The dish was refilled each night, and researchers counted how many candies were eaten over four weeks.
Secretaries ate an average of 7.7 kisses each day when the candies were in clear containers on their desks; 4.6 when in opaque jars on the desk; 5.6 when in clear jars 6 feet away; and 3.1 when in opaque jars 6 feet away.
In interviews afterward, secretaries overestimated how many chocolates they ate when they had to walk to get some, and underestimated how many they consumed when the treats were in easy reach .
October 20, 2005
Who are these presumptuous wankers calling themselves the Obesity Society?
Why didn't someone here copyright that name decades ago? We could still be the Obesity League, couldn't we? BY MARILYNN MARCHIONE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VANCOUVER, Canada -- Scientists studying candy-jar psychology have confirmed what most of us know instinctively: Out of sight is out of mind.
Secretaries who were given Hershey kisses:smitten: ate more of them when the jars were clear or on their desks than when the chocolates were in opaque containers or placed a short distance away.
"It should make us think about what we're doing"
to undermine people's willpower, said Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the weight-control program at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and president of the Obesity Society , which held a conference where the research was presented Tuesday.The study was led by Brian Wansink, a Cornell University food marketing and eating behavior expert. Aronne said it was one of the few experiments to quantify temptation:kiss2: .
Wansink and his colleagues gave 40 university secretaries 30 chocolate kisses in a clear or an opaque candy jar placed on their desks or 6 feet away. The dish was refilled each night, and researchers counted how many candies were eaten over four weeks.
Secretaries ate an average of 7.7 kisses each day
when the candies were in clear containers on their desks; 4.6 when in opaque jars on the desk; 5.6 when in clear jars 6 feet away; and 3.1 when in opaque jars 6 feet away.In interviews afterward, secretaries overestimated
how many chocolates they ate when they had to walk to get some, and underestimated how many they consumed when the treats were in easy reach .
