Washington: A new study has suggested that people ate more while watching a Hollywood action movie on TV as compared to watching an interview program.
The study observed that viewers ate more M and Ms, cookies, carrots and grapes while watching an excerpt from a Hollywood action film.
The authors examined how objective technical characteristics, such as the frequency of visual camera cuts or variations in sound, might influence how much food was eaten.
The research included 94 undergraduate students where they gathered in groups to watch 20 minutes of TV and was randomly assigned to 1 of 3 different programs i.e. an excerpt from the movie "The Island", the interview program "Charlie Rose" or the identical excerpt from "The Island" but with no sound. The study observed that viewers had M and Ms, cookies, carrots and grapes to snack on while watching the movie.
One of the authors said that , more distracting TV content appeared to increase food consumption, action and sound variation are bad for one's diet and the more distracting a TV show, the less attention people appeared to pay to eating, and the more they eat.
