Food Preferences and Consumer Cognition

Last registered on April 30, 2025

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Food Preferences and Consumer Cognition

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0015525

Initial registration date

April 23, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

April 30, 2025, 8:48 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Jianhui Liu

Affiliation

University of Florida

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Bachir Kassas

PI Affiliation

PI Name

Rodolfo Nayga

PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2025-04-23

End date

2025-05-31

Keywords

Agriculture, Behavior, Health, Lab

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

This study will examine the effect of hunger, as well as food anticipation, on consumers’ cognitive performance, food preferences, food consumption, and the accuracy of self-reported physical characteristics compared to measured values. Hunger level and food anticipation will be exogenously varied across three treatments: control (not hungry), T1 (hungry and anticipating food), and T2 (hungry and not anticipating food). Electroencephalography will be used to measure subjects’ electrical brain activity across the three groups as they complete a cognitive task and a food preference task.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Kassas, Bachir, Jianhui Liu and Rodolfo Nayga. 2025. "Food Preferences and Consumer Cognition." AEA RCT Registry. April 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15525-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Participants are randomly assigned to one of three groups to assess the impact of hunger and food anticipation. The control group is not hungry (fed prior to session). Treatment Group 1 participants fast for 5 hours and are told they will receive food after completing the study (food anticipation). Treatment Group 2 participants also fast for 5 hours but are not informed about receiving food.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2025-04-23

Intervention End Date

2025-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Individual purchase behavior, food preference, food consumption, cognitive task performance, differences in self-reported characteristics and measured values, and EEG during different stages of the experiment

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Adult participants will be recruited from a UF student listserv and screened for eligibility based on specific inclusion criteria. Eligible participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups. EEG equipment will be set up to record brain activity. Participants will complete a survey, including a purchase task, food consumption task, a cognitive task, and a brief questionnaire while EEG data is collected.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

The randomization is done in R, where the subjects are randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups.

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

None

Sample size: planned number of observations

about 150 participants

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Approximately 50 participants in each of the three arms:

50 control (not hungry)

50 treatment 1 (hungry with food anticipation)

50 treatment 2 (hungry without food anticipation)

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB