Selective Sensitization: Consuming a Food Activates a Goal to Consume Its Complements

Abstract

Eating a food reduces the desire to eat more of that food. General-process theories of motivation posit that eating a food also increases the motivation to eat other foods-an effect known as cross-stimulus sensitization. The authors propose that eating a food selectively sensitizes consumers to its complements rather than to all foods. Eating a food activates a goal to consume foods that consumers perceive to be well paired with the consumed food. In five experiments, imagined and actual consumption of a food sensitized participants to complementary foods but not to unrelated or semantically associated foods. These findings suggest that cross-stimulus sensitization is more specific and predictable than previously assumed. The authors identify goal activation as the process through which cross-stimulus sensitization occurs and can be instilled.