When your friend stops you from digging into your delicious meal so that she can Instagram the food, it spoils the eating experience. And there’s science to prove that.
A new study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology says that over-exposure to food photos on Instagram ruins your meal. Marketing professors at Brigham Young University asked 232 people to look at and rate pictures of food.
Half of the participants looked a pictures of sweet food (cakes, pastries), half at pictures of salty food (pretzels, chips). Both groups were then asked to have a salty food snack. Those who had looked at pictures of salty food enjoyed their snack less.
“In a way, you’re becoming tired of that taste without even eating the food,” study coauthor Ryan Elder said on the Brigham website. “It’s sensory boredom — you’ve kind of moved on. You don’t want that taste experience anymore.”