Differences in Portion Sizes in Brazil, France, and the USA.

Portion size is recognized as a major determinant of food intake, at least over the short term, and could be related to overconsumption and obesity. In this study, we developed and evaluated a new visual measure of portion size (PS), examined whether the PS of chicken, ice cream, and soda varied among people in Brazil, France, and the USA, and tested whether PS was related to gender, body mass index, body weight, and socioeconomic status. We conducted a cross-sectional study using online convenience samples of university students (total N = 1391). Across all three foods, French personal and country PSs were significantly smaller than the other three countries. Estimated country PS was reliably larger than personal PS. Women's personal PSs were smaller than men's, but women's and men's estimates for country PS were similar. French personal and country PSs were the lowest. Some PSs had a weak but significant correlation with SES but were not significantly related to either weight or BMI. The study confirms French-American differences in personal PS and demonstrates that perceived norms correspond to individual PS.

Traditional and modern eating in older adults: a comparison between an urban and rural sample from Gujarat, Western India.

Background: The present study aimed to investigate how often and to what degree older adults living in an area of Gujarat, Western India, enact traditional and modern eating behaviors. Specifically, we aimed to determine which facets of traditional eating are enacted rarely and which facets of modern eating are enacted often. Moreover, we hypothesized that urban older adults show a higher level of modern eating behaviors than rural older adults. Furthermore, we examined which traditional eating behaviors are more prevalent in rural older adults, and which are more prevalent in urban older adults. Methods: A trained research assistant administered a questionnaire in a face-to-face situation with 120 older adults in a rural and an urban area of Gujarat, Western India. Participants were asked how often and to what degree they perform 57 traditional and modern eating behaviors. Results: Overall, our sample of older Gujaratis reported a high level of traditional eating behaviors and a low level of modern eating behaviors. However, we also found, for example, a low level of the traditional eating facet of men getting preferential treatment and a high level of the modern eating facet of food being readily available. Moreover, most modern eating facets were more pronounced in the urban than in the rural sample. This was also the case for half of all traditional eating facets. Conclusion: Our sample of older adults living in an area of Gujarat displayed more modern eating behaviors in urban than in rural areas. At the same time, however, the urban sample showed also more traditional eating behaviors, such as eating more fruits, possibly because of better food availability. Altogether, results might hint at some signs of modernization among older adults in this area of Gujarat with regard to changing gender roles and better food availability.

Similar or different? Comparing food cultures with regard to traditional and modern eating across ten countries.

Food cultures can play a role in health and well-being. This raises the questions of whether nation boundaries unite the food cultures of different regions and ethnic groups, what characterises food cultures from very different parts of the world, and what similarities and differences exist. The present study aimed to investigate these questions with regard to eating traditions and modern eating practices. In this cross-sectional study, we recruited 3722 participants from ten countries - Brazil, China, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, and the USA. Participants represented 25 regional and ethnic groups. They were queried about 86 traditional and modern facets of their food cultures in interviews, paper-pencil and online questionnaires. First, hierarchical cluster analysis suggested nine distinct clusters of food cultures - the food cultures of the Brazilian, Chinese, Ghanaian, Indian, Japanese, Mexican, Turkish, African and Latin US American samples, and of European descendants. Interestingly, for seven of the ten investigated countries, nation boundaries united food cultures. Second, each of the nine food culture clusters was characterised by a unique pattern of traditional and modern eating practices. Third, the nine food culture clusters varied more in their traditional eating practices than their modern eating practices. These results might promote a better understanding of the link between food cultures and health and well-being that goes beyond nutrients. For instance, food cultures might be linked to well-being via strengthening people's sense of cultural identity. Moreover, the present results contribute to a better understanding of the complex interplay between food and culture, and could help in developing culturally competent interventions to improve diet and reduce the risk of eating-related diseases.

Robert A. Rescorla (1940-2020).

Memorializes Robert Arthur Rescorla (1940-2020), emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Rescorla was the world's most distinguished scholar in animal learning and a great teacher. Rescorla thought of himself as primarily an experimen talist, and his experiments on Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental learning would win any prize for the aesthetics of experimental design. Most of his nearly 200 empirical articles included multiple experiments with replications. Among Re scorla's most beautiful experiments were the studies of extinc tion performed in the last decade of his career. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Binary categorizations of foods by American, French and Indian adults: Predominance of healthy-unhealthy and minimal emphasis on animal-plant.

OBJECTIVE: Food and drink form a substantial part of health advice, and a significant part of pleasant or unpleasant memories, expectations and experiences. They can be divided into two categories in many ways, and the preferred way in which any person makes this division may be an indicator of how that person thinks about the food-drink domain, with potential health implications. Binary categorization is an uncommon technique but it offers a window into "default" categorization of the world. We employ two different methods to assess binary categorization, spontaneous categorizations, and ranking of a set of defined categorizations. Insofar as these two methods give convergent results, this would serve to strengthen the evidence provided by our findings. METHODS: Samples of each of approximately 300 on-line American, French, and Indian adults spontaneously offered a preferred way of dichotomizing the food/drink domain. At a later point in the same questionnaire, they rank ordered the importance to them of each of five categorizations including natural versus processed, animal origin versus plant origin, and healthy versus unhealthy. RESULTS: The predominant categorization by both methods was healthy-unhealthy. The animal-plant origin categorization was rare. The correspondence between results for spontaneous nomination of dichotomies versus ranking a fixed list of dichotomies on importance is substantial, and is a form of validation of the spontaneous method. DISCUSSION: "Healthy-Unhealthy" is a continuum rather than a dichotomy, is subject to changing classifications by the nutrition-medical community, and is limited in value because small amounts of "unhealthy" foods are not unhealthy. In an important sense, "healthy-unhealthy" is an incorrect principle for dividing foods. Surprisingly, only a very small percent of individuals suggested (or ranked highly) animal origin versus plant origin, although this is a true dichotomy, and on biological and nutritional and sustainability grounds, this might be the most fundamental dichotomy.

Recency negativity: Newer food crops are evaluated less favorably.

Food crops produced by new technologies such as genetic engineering are widely opposed (Gaskell, Bauer, Durant, & Allum, 1999; Scott, Inbar, Wirz, Brossard, & Rozin, 2018). Here, we examine one reason for this opposition: recency. More recently-developed crops are evaluated less favorably, whether they are produced by artificial selection (i.e., conventional breeding), natural or man-made irradiation, or genetic engineering. Negative effects of recency persist in a within-subjects design where people are able to explicitly compare crops developed at different times, and an internal meta-analysis shows that the negative effect of recency is robust across measures and stimuli. These results have implications for the evaluation of crops produced using new modification techniques, including the widespread opposition to genetic engineering.

Bugs are blech, butterflies are beautiful, but both are bad to bite: Admired animals are disgusting to eat but are themselves neither disgusting nor contaminating.

It is often assumed that things that are disgusting to eat are, themselves, disgusting, and that things that are disgusting to eat are also contaminating. We present data that counters both of these assumptions. In adult American and Indian samples, Study 1 provides evidence that, in contrast to many other insects, participants have positive attitudes toward butterflies. Participants are relatively unbothered by touching them or eating food that they have contacted but are very disgusted by the thought of eating them. Study 2 extends these findings with an adult American sample, comparing four pairs of animals, one admired and one disgusting: butterflies and cockroaches, canaries and vultures, koalas and rats, and dogs and hyenas. In all 4 cases, the positive animals themselves are rated as very low in disgustingness but rated as very disgusting to consume-almost as disgusting as the negative animals. However, although contact between the negative animals and a favorite food produces a strong disgust response to the favorite food, this contamination effect is much smaller, and sometimes absent, with the positive animals. We present evidence that the perceived immorality of killing admired animals is related to the disgust at consuming them. Disgust at eating an admired animal may have a moral component because it involves, at least indirectly, killing the animal. An admired animal that has contacted a favored food does not reliably make that food disgusting. In this scenario, as opposed to eating, there is no harm to the animal. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding traditional and modern eating: the TEP10 framework.

Across the world, there has been a movement from traditional to modern eating, including a movement of traditional eating patterns from their origin culture to new cultures, and the emergence of new foods and eating behaviors. This trend toward modern eating is of particular significance because traditional eating has been related to positive health outcomes and sustainability. Yet, there is no consensus on what constitutes traditional and modern eating. The present study provides a comprehensive compilation of the various facets that seem to make up traditional and modern eating. Specifically, 106 facets were mentioned in the previous literature and expert discussions, combining international and interdisciplinary perspectives. The present study provides a framework (the TEP10 framework) systematizing these 106 facets into two major dimensions, what and how people eat, and 12 subdimensions. Hence, focusing only on single facets of traditional and modern eating is an oversimplification of this complex phenomenon. Instead, the multidimensionality and interplay between different facets should be considered to gain a comprehensive understanding of the trends, consequences, and underlying factors of traditional and modern eating.

Extreme opponents of genetically modified foods know the least but think they know the most.

There is widespread agreement among scientists that genetically modified foods are safe to consume1,2 and have the potential to provide substantial benefits to humankind3. However, many people still harbour concerns about them or oppose their use4,5. In a nationally representative sample of US adults, we find that as extremity of opposition to and concern about genetically modified foods increases, objective knowledge about science and genetics decreases, but perceived understanding of genetically modified foods increases. Extreme opponents know the least, but think they know the most. Moreover, the relationship between self-assessed and objective knowledge shifts from positive to negative at high levels of opposition. Similar results were obtained in a parallel study with representative samples from the United States, France and Germany, and in a study testing attitudes about a medical application of genetic engineering technology (gene therapy). This pattern did not emerge, however, for attitudes and beliefs about climate change.

Henry Gleitman (1925-2015).

Presents an obituary of Henry Gleitman (1925-2015). Gleitman was an author of major papers in animal learning, memory, theater, and the psychology of language, including one book with Lila Gleitman (Phrase and Paraphrase, 1970). Gleitman was among the very best teachers in the history of psychology. He taught introductory psychology about 100 times, engaging the minds of some 30,000 students, each exposed to his enlightening, expansive, and entertaining synthesis of psychology. Gleitman came to the University of Pennsylvania in 1964 as Professor and Chair of Psychology. Over a 5-year period, he shaped the department into a first-rate teaching center for both undergraduate and graduate students, and demonstrated the compatibility and mutually reinforcing values of teaching and research. The University of Pennsylvania was uniquely blessed to count him among its faculty for 50 years (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Advancing Understanding of the Aesthetics of Temporal Sequences by Combining Some Principles and Practices in Music and Cuisine With Psychology.

We consider how to optimize remembered aesthetic pleasure resulting from temporal sequences of events such as music and meals. We examine what psychology and music can learn from each other and how this knowledge might be applied to tasting menus and other temporal sequences. Common practices in longer musical works suggest the importance of (a) beginnings and endings, (b) variations in affective intensity over time, (c) repetitions, (d) variations on a theme, and (e) a return to prior material at the end of a piece. Results from psychology suggest that for affective memory, the final and peak experiences are most critical. For example, because a strong positive ending may be important for affective memory, and because return is a major feature of the ending of musical works, it may be an error to end meals with desserts, which are not the favorite courses for most people and typically bear no relation to prior courses (hence no return).

An Overview of Attitudes Toward Genetically Engineered Food.

Genetically engineered food has had its DNA, RNA, or proteins manipulated by intentional human intervention. We provide an overview of the importance and regulation of genetically engineered food and lay attitudes toward it. We first discuss the pronaturalness context in the United States and Europe that preceded the appearance of genetically engineered food. We then review the definition, prevalence, and regulation of this type of food. Genetically engineered food is widespread in some countries, but there is great controversy worldwide among individuals, governments, and other institutions about the advisability of growing and consuming it. In general, life scientists have a much more positive view of genetically engineered food than laypeople. We examine the bases of lay opposition to genetically engineered food and the evidence for how attitudes change. Laypeople tend to see genetically engineered food as dangerous and offering few benefits. We suggest that much of the lay opposition is morally based. One possibility is that, in some contexts, people view nature and naturalness as sacred and genetically engineered food as a violation of naturalness. We also suggest that for many people these perceptions of naturalness and attitudes toward genetically engineered food follow the sympathetic magical law of contagion, in which even minimal contact between a natural food and an unnatural entity, either a scientist or a piece of foreign DNA, pollutes or contaminates the natural entity and renders it unacceptable or even immoral to consume.

What Constitutes Traditional and Modern Eating? The Case of Japan.

Traditional Japanese dietary culture might be a factor contributing to the high life expectancy in Japan. As little is known about what constitutes traditional and modern eating in Japan, the aims of the current study were to (1) comprehensively compile and systematize the various facets of traditional and modern eating; and (2) investigate whether these facets also apply to traditional and modern eating in Japan. In Study 1, an extensive international literature review was performed. Forty-five facets of traditional and modern eating were compiled and systematized into the dimensions of what and how people eat, and into eleven separate subdimensions. In Study 2, 340 adults from Japan answered a questionnaire. Results showed that traditional and modern eating in Japan is reflected in both what and how people eat. Within these two dimensions, ten subdimensions were found: the ingredients, processing, temporal origin, spatial origin, and variety of consumed foods, as well as temporal, spatial, and social aspects, appreciation, and concerns when eating. This study provides a broad compilation of facets of traditional and modern eating in Japan. Future research should investigate how these facets are related to life expectancy and health.

The positive eating scale: relationship with objective health parameters and validity in Germany, the USA and India.

OBJECTIVE: The prevailing focus regarding eating behaviour is on restriction, concern, worry and pathology. In contrast, the purpose of the present studies was to focus on a positive relationship with eating in non-clinical samples from Germany, the USA and India. DESIGN: In Study 1, the Positive Eating Scale (PES) was tested and validated in a large longitudinal sample (T1: N = 772; T2: N = 510). In Study 2, the PES was tested in online samples from the USA, India and Germany (total N = 749). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Health risk status was measured in Study 1 with objective health parameters (fasting serum glucose, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood pressure, waist circumference, BMI). RESULTS: Study 1 revealed acceptable psychometric properties of the PES, internal consistency (α = .87), as well as test-retest reliability after six months (r = .67). Importantly, a positive relationship with eating was associated with decreased health risk factors six months later. In Study 2, the structure of the PES was confirmed for German, Indian and US-American adults, suggesting validity across remarkably different eating environments. CONCLUSION: A positive relationship with eating might be a fruitful starting point for prevention and intervention programmes promoting physical and psychological health.

The Eating Motivation Survey: results from the USA, India and Germany.

OBJECTIVE: Research has shown that there is a large variety of different motives underlying why people eat what they eat, which can be assessed with The Eating Motivation Survey (TEMS). The present study investigates the consistency and measurement invariance of the fifteen basic motives included in TEMS in countries with greatly differing eating environments. DESIGN: The fifteen-factor structure of TEMS (brief version: forty-six items) was tested in confirmatory factor analyses. SETTING: An online survey was conducted. SUBJECTS: US-American, Indian and German adults (total N 749) took part. RESULTS: Despite the complexity of the model, fit indices indicated a reasonable model fit (for the total sample: χ 2/df=4·03; standardized root-mean-squared residual (SRMR)=0·063; root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA)=0·064 (95 % CI 0·062, 0·066)). Only the comparative fit index (CFI) was below the recommended threshold (for the total sample: CFI=0·84). Altogether, 181 out of 184 item loadings were above the recommended threshold of 0·30. Furthermore, the factorial structure of TEMS was invariant across countries with respect to factor configuration and factor loadings (configural v. metric invariance model: ΔCFI=0·009; ΔRMSEA=0·001; ΔSRMR=0·001). Moreover, forty-three out of forty-six items showed invariant intercepts across countries. CONCLUSIONS: The fifteen-factor structure of TEMS was, in general, confirmed across countries despite marked differences in eating environments. Moreover, latent means of fourteen out of fifteen motive factors can be compared across countries in future studies. This is a first step towards determining generalizability of the fifteen basic eating motives of TEMS across eating environments.

Evidence from hunter-gatherer and subsistence agricultural populations for the universality of contagion sensitivity.

The phenomenon of magical contagion - the unobserved passage of properties between entities that come into physical contact - was described by anthropologists over a century ago, yet questions remain about its origin, function, and universality. Contagion sensitivity, along with the emotion of disgust, has been proposed to be part of a biologically-evolved system designed to reduce exposure to pathogens by increasing the avoidance of "contaminated" objects. Yet this phenomenon has not been studied using systematic psychological comparison outside of industrialized populations. Here we document contagion sensitivity in two culturally, geographically, and economically distinct populations with little exposure to Western biomedicine and formal education: the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania and Tannese subsistence-agriculturalists of Vanuatu. In both populations, a majority of individuals rejected familiar and palatable foods when contaminating items touched the food but were subsequently removed. The Tannese children in our study showed a similar response, consistent with previous research with Western children. Our data support the proposal that contagion sensitivity is universal in human populations.

Are school meals a viable and sustainable tool to improve the healthiness and sustainability of children´s diet and food consumption? A cross-national comparative perspective.

There is little agreement among governments, institutions, scientists and food activists as to how to best tackle the challenging issues of health and sustainability in the food sector. This essay discusses the potential of school meals as a platform to promote healthy and sustainable food behavior. School meal programs are of particular interest for improving public diet because they reach children at a population scale across socio-economic classes and for over a decade of their lives, and because food habits of children are more malleable than those of adults. Current research on the history and health implications of school meal programs is reviewed in a cross-national comparative framework, and arguments explored that speak for the need of a new developmental phase of school meals as an integrative learning platform for healthy and sustainable food behavior. Nutritional, social, practical, educational, economical, political, and cultural perspectives and challenges linked to the implementation of healthy and sustainable school meals are discussed. Finally, the need for long-term interventions and evaluations is highlighted and new research directions are proposed.

Adult picky eaters with symptoms of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder: comparable distress and comorbidity but different eating behaviors compared to those with disordered eating symptoms.

BACKGROUND: One presentation of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is characterized by picky eating, i.e., selective eating based on the sensory properties of food. The present study has two aims. The first is to describe distress and impairment in individuals with ARFID secondary to picky eating. The second is to determine whether eating behaviors hypothesized to be specific to picky eating can differentiate picky eaters with and without ARFID from typical eaters (e.g., individuals not reporting picky or disordered eating) and individuals who strongly endorse attitudes associated with anorexia and bulimia (eating disordered attitudes). METHODS: Participants were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (N = 325) and an online support group for adult picky eaters (N = 81). Participants were grouped based on endorsement of picky eating, ARFID symptoms, and elevated eating disordered attitudes on the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26). The resulting four eating behavior groups were compared on measures of distress and impairment (e.g., anxiety/depression and, obsessive compulsive disorder symptoms, eating-related quality of life) and on measures of eating behaviors associated with picky eating (e.g., food neophobia, inflexibility about preparation and presentation of preferred foods, sensitivity to sensory stimuli, and eating from a very narrow range of foods). The groups were compared using one way ANOVA with post-hoc Tamhane's T2 tests. RESULTS: On measures of distress and impairment, participants with ARFID reported higher scores than both typical eaters and picky eaters without ARFID, and comparable scores to those with disordered eating attitudes. Three of four measures of picky eating behavior, eating inflexibility, food neophobia, and eating from a range of 20 or fewer foods, distinguished picky eaters with and without ARFID form typical eaters and those with disordered eating attitudes. Picky eaters with ARFID reported greater food neophobia and eating inflexibility, and were more likely to eat from a narrow range of foods, compared to picky eaters without ARFID. CONCLUSIONS: Adult picky eaters can be differentiated from those with symptoms of anorexia and bulimia by their stronger endorsement of food neophobia and inflexible eating behaviors, and by eating from a very narrow range of foods. Picky eaters with ARFID symptoms can be differentiated from picky eaters without these symptoms on the basis of these three eating behaviors, and by their higher endorsement of internalizing distress, OCD symptoms, and eating-related quality of life impairment. This study provides evidence that ARFID symptoms exist independently of symptoms of other eating disorders and are characterized by several distinct eating behaviors. In a clinical analogue sample of disordered eaters, ARFID symptoms were associated with distress and impairment at levels comparable to symptoms of anorexia and bulimia.

Right: Left:: East: West. Evidence that individuals from East Asian and South Asian cultures emphasize right hemisphere functions in comparison to Euro-American cultures.

We present evidence that individuals from East or South Asian cultures (Japanese college students in Japan and East or South Asian born and raised college students in the USA) tend to exhibit default thinking that corresponds to right hemisphere holistic functions, as compared to Caucasian individuals from a Western culture (born and raised in the USA). In two lateralized tasks (locating the nose in a scrambled face, and global-local letter task), both Asian groups showed a greater right hemisphere bias than the Western group. In a third lateralized task, judging similarity in terms of visual form versus functional/semantic categorizations, there was not a reliable difference between the groups. On a classic, ambiguous face composed of vegetables, both Eastern groups displayed a greater right hemisphere (holistic face processing) bias than the Western group. These results support an "East - Right Hemisphere, West - Left Hemisphere" hypothesis, as originally proposed by Ornstein (1972). This hypothesis is open as to the degree to which social-cultural forces were involved in hemispheric specialization, or the opposite, or both. Our aim is to encourage a more thorough analysis of this hypothesis, suggesting both lateralization studies corresponding to documented East-West differences, and East-West studies corresponding to lateralization differences.