When Hungry People See Leaner Meals: Hunger Reduces Calorie Evaluations

Consumers may approach product choice when hungry, tired, aroused or distracted. Such motivational states have extensive effects on product judgment and choice, including increases in perceived attractiveness (Read et al. 1998), purchase (Mela et al. 1996), variety seeking (Goukens et al. 2007), and impulsive choice (van den Bergh et al. 2008). In addition to general trends towards underestimation, a variety of factors systematically bias one’s perception of food amount (Gleaves, Williamson, & Barker, 1993). Consumers’ calorie estimates are particularly prone to various distortions. People often have biased estimates of calories (Chernev and Chandon 2010, Chandon and Wansink 2007). Such errors are often in the direction of calorie underestimation (Lansky and Brownell 1982, Lichtman et al. 1992, Livingstone and Black 2003). In the current work, we wish to examine how a common physical state, hunger, influences calorie estimation. Counter to prior thinking regarding the influence of need on size estimate (Beasley et al. 2004, Bruner and Goodman 1947, van Koningsbruggen et al. 2011, Veltcamp et al. 2011) we show that hunger may actually lead to a reduction in calorie estimates.