New York sources reported that the study, published in the Journal of Retailing, revealed that when high self-control individuals touch food directly with their hands, compared to when they use cutlery, they not only find what they eat tastier and more satisfying but also eat more.
“Our results suggest that for people who regularly control their food consumption, direct touch triggers an enhanced sensory response, making food more desirable and appealing,” said study researcher Adriana Madzharov from Stevens Institute of technology in the US. In her first experiment, Madzharov had 45 undergraduate students visually inspect and evaluate a cube of Muenster cheese, hold it before eating it and then asked them to answer questions about their eating behaviour.
Half of the participants used a pick and sampled a cheese cube with an appetizer while the other half sampled a cheese cube without pick. Initially, the two groups did not indicate any difference. The researchers found that participants who reported a high degree of self-control when consuming food individuals who report that they can resist tasty foods and are conscious about what and how much they eat when using their hands found the cheese tastier and more appetizing.
