Episodic future thinking reduces eating in a food court.
Level 2 - randomized trial
Individual randomized controlled trial
PubMed 26562686 · doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2015.10.002
What was done
Twenty-nine overweight or obese women who wanted to improve their eating habits were randomly assigned to a smartphone-based episodic future thinking (EFT; vivid mental simulation of future events) group or an active control episodic recent thinking (ERT) group while consuming dinner in a public food court.
What was found
The EFT group showed a reduction in total calorie consumption, a reduction in the percentage of calories derived from fat, and an increase in the percentage of calories derived from protein compared with the ERT group. Exact numerical values, effect sizes, and significance levels were not reported in the abstract.
Why it matters
This study provides preliminary evidence that laboratory-tested cognitive interventions like episodic future thinking can be delivered via smartphone to alter food choices in naturalistic, high-temptation environments.
Limits
The study had a very small sample size (n = 29) limited strictly to overweight or obese women actively seeking dietary improvement. Only a single meal session in a food court was assessed, with no long-term dietary tracking or clinical weight-loss outcomes provided.
Cited by
- supports Research from Leonard Epstein's lab demonstrates that episodic future thinking manipulations, such as listening to recordings about future goals while ordering fast food in shopping malls, can influence how much people eat.