Abstract: Wansink, Painter, and North (2005) famously found that visual
cues affect food intake. Individuals who ate from a biased (self-refilling
bowl) versus an accurate (normal bowl) visual cue consumed more soup, but
they estimated eating a similar amount. The study’s validity has recently
been called into question, prompting our direct replication. We randomly
assigned 255 participants to eat soup out of normal bowls (accurate cue) or
modified bowls that imperceptibly self-refilled (biased cue). In the
preliminary results, ANCOVAs evaluated the effect of the visual cue on
actual and estimated food intake, controlling for BMI, sex, and baseline
hunger. Participants in the biased cue condition ate 22% more soup than
those in the accurate cue condition [F(1, 245) = 6.29, p = .013]. However,
they estimated that they consumed less in ounces compared to those in the
accurate cue condition [F(1, 249) = 5.32, p = .022]. Thus we replicated the
finding that a biased visual cue increases food intake over self-reported
satiety. The current replication is important because the original findings
have influenced policy (e.g., USDA) and consumers (e.g., 100 calorie snack
packs).