Have you ever noticed that when you are hungry any picture of food seems irresistible and grabs your attention almost immediately? This attentional bias, essential for our survival, allows us to detect food quickly when we need it, and decreases when we are satiated. However, in today’s environments, characterized as obesogenic, this mechanism can become more of a problem than an advantage. We live constantly exposed to a large number of food cues, especially advertisements and logos of high-calorie foods, rich in fats and sugars, designed to capture our attention.
A study conducted at the Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC) of the University of Granada examined whether this attentional bias toward food also occurs toward fast-food logos and whether, as with food, it depends on the motivational state of hunger.
Researchers Irene Ruiz, Ana González, and Isabel de Brugada, from the Neuroplasticity and Learning group, carried out two experiments with the following objectives:
- To determine whether food logos can capture our attention as much as food images.
- To examine if this attentional bias toward logos depends on our hunger state.
To do this, a visual search task was used in which four images were displayed and participants had to indicate whether they were all the same or whether one was different. This image could be related to food (food images or food logos) or unrelated (images of everyday objects or cleaning product logos).
To study the influence of hunger, in the first experiment participants were asked not to eat anything in the three hours before the task to ensure they were hungry. In the second experiment, in contrast, they were given potato chips and chocolate cookies before the task to ensure they were satiated. It was expected that, when hungry, they would respond faster to both food images and food logos compared to food-unrelated stimuli. In contrast, when satiated, a reduction of the bias toward food images was anticipated, but not toward logos.
As expected, the results showed that when participants were hungry, both food images and food logos captured more attention than neutral stimuli. However, for satiated participants, food images no longer captured attention, producing responses similar to those elicited by food-unrelated stimuli. Food logos, on the other hand, attracted attention even in the absence of hunger.
These findings suggest that, although attentional bias toward food depends on the hunger state, food logos capture our attention in a more automatic and inflexible way. Their repeated pairing with rich and palatable foods turns them into cues that, automatically, activate responses such as the attentional bias or the desire to eat independently of the hunger state.
This explains very common everyday situations: you have just eaten and, even without being hungry, seeing the logo of a fast-food chain or an advertisement on social media can trigger the impulse to “grab a snack.” This study highlights the impact of constant exposure to signals of unhealthy food and their role in excessive consumption and in the development of overweight and obesity.
Reference
Ruiz, I., González, A., & de Brugada, I. (2025). Satiation modulates attentional capture by food-related images but not food-brand logos. Food Quality and Preference, 105783. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2025.105783
Contact
Irene Ruiz - iruiz@ugr.es