Host: The Japanese Society for Cognitive Psychology
Previous studies have found a negative correlation between subjective hunger aroused by direct olfactory and gustatory stimulus and altruistic behavior. However, the influence of activation of food representation on altruistic behavior by mere recollection of food without any direct stimuli still remained in question. This study aimed to examine how the degree of subjective hunger by mere recollection of food affects participants’ altruistic behavior. 63 participants were allocated one of three conditions where they were made to feel hunger by recollecting a specific food to describe in detail: noodle for strong condition; pudding for weak condition; and control condition with no recollection task. After the priming task, participants were asked how much they would be willing to help another experiment. A result showed that the participants in the noodle condition were significantly more reluctant to help compared to the other two conditions. The result is explained using conceptual metaphor theory.
