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Fast
food makes us impatient
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Fast food is
not only bad for health, it can trigger impatience and hasty behaviour in
people, a new study has found.
The original idea behind fast food is to increase efficiency, allowing people to
quickly finish a meal so they can move on to other matters.
Now, researchers at the University of Toronto have found that the mere exposure
to fast food and related symbols can make people impatient, increasing
preference for time saving products, and reducing willingness to save.
"Fast food represents a culture of time efficiency and instant gratification,"
said Chen-Bo Zhong, who co-wrote the paper with colleague Sanford DeVoe.
"The problem is that the goal of saving time gets activated upon exposure to
fast food regardless of whether time is a relevant factor in the context," Bo
Zhong added.
In one experiment, the researchers flashed fast food symbols, such as the golden
arch of McDonald's, on a computer screen for a few milliseconds, so quick that
participants couldn't consciously identify what they saw.
They found that this unconscious exposure increased participants' reading speed
in a subsequent task compared to those in a control condition, even when there
was no advantage to finishing sooner.
In another study, participants who recalled a time when they eat at a food
restaurant subsequently preferred time-saving products—such as two-in-one
shampoo—over regular products.
A final experiment found people exposed to fast food logos exhibited greater
reluctance for saving —choose a smaller immediate payment rather than opting for
a much larger delayed payment.
ANI / Times of India
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