The Effect of Exposure to Food in Social Networks on Food Cravings and External Eating
Phase: NA
Conditions: Eating Habits and Behaviors, (UMLS)
Sponsor: Ruppin Acdemic Center

1 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
 
 
 
The effect of exposure to food in social networks on 
food cravings and external eating 
Efrat Neter 
Rachel Bachner-Melaman 
Astar Tavor 
Ruppin Academic Center 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
Table of content 
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 3 
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 5 
Eating patterns........................................................................................................................................... 5 
Social Media ............................................................................................................................................. 7 
Underlying mechanisms of the relations between eating patterns and food porn ...................................... 8 
The present study .................................................................................................................................... 11 
Method ........................................................................................................................................................ 11 
Participants .............................................................................................................................................. 11 
Design ..................................................................................................................................................... 12 
Measures ................................................................................................................................................. 12 
Statistical analyses .................................................................................................................................. 16 
Results ......................................................................................................................................................... 16 
Main effect of the manipulation and disturbed eating on eating patterns and bivariate associations with 
demographic attributes ............................................................................................................................ 16 
Interaction between the manipulation and disordered eating .................................................................. 17 
Post-hoc analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 18 
Discussion ................................................................................................................................................... 19 
References ................................................................................................................................................... 25 
Table 1 ......................................................................................................................................................... 29 

3 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
Abstract 
Background: Food practices are socially, culturally and historically embedded in everyday life. 
It is a common notion that people eat due to internal state of physiologic hunger but in fact the 
drive behind eating behaviors is more complex. People eat, inter alia, because they respond to 
external cues such as the sight and smell of food, or external eating. Another related concept is 
food cravings: intense irresistible desires to consume a particular food. Both external eating and 
food cravings have been associated with impulsivity, eating disorders and obesity. During recent 
decades the role of the media, and recently of the social media sites (SNS) in our lives has grown 
significantly, and their influence on culture and society is now extensive. Common activities on 
SNS are viewing and posting pictures of tempting food, known as 'food porn'. Food porn has been 
found to correlate with eating patterns and food-related variables. The aim of this study is to 
conduct a controlled manipulation in order to test for causality. We hypothesized that (1) Viewing 
appetizing food pictures will result in higher rates of external eating and food cravings than 
viewing food-neutral pictures; (2) viewing appetizing food pictures will lead participants to order 
greater amounts and different types of food; (3) The effect of viewing food pictures on external 
eating, food cravings and food orders will be greater for participants with disordered eating than 
for other participants. 
Method: 165 participants aged 18-35 (141 females and 24 men) responded to online questionnaires. 
Initially, demographic attributes, SNS food preoccupation and disordered eating (EAT-26) were 
assessed. Participants were then randomly assigned to view a video clip showing pictures of 
appetizing foods (experimental group) or neutral pictures of tourist destinations (control group). 
After viewing the video, participants responded to scales assessing external eating (DEBQ), food 
cravings (FCQ-S) and were also asked to order food they would like to eat immediately from a 
hypothetical menu. 
Results: Contrary to expectations, appetizing food pictures didn't affect external eating, food 
cravings, or the type or amount of food ordered from a menu after controlling for disordered 
eating levels. Additionally, viewing food pictures didn't affect individuals with disordered eating 

4 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
more than individuals without disordered eating for either of the dependent variables. Despite 
findings of insignificant causality, results indicated that SNS food preoccupation was 
significantly associated with disordered eating, food craving and the size of portions ordered from 
a menu, but not with external eating and type of foods chosen. Also SNS food preoccupation 
marginally moderated the relationship between the manipulation group and type of food chosen 
from a menu. 
Discussion: Results support previous findings documenting an association between SNS use and 
SNS food preoccupation and eating patterns (disordered eating, food cravings and food portion 
size and food portion type selected from the menu). Such results are important because this is one 
of the first studies to investigate direct causality between these variables. Result of this study 
suggests that while SNS use is correlated with eating patterns, it does not influence them directly. 
Keywords: food porn, food craving, external eating, disordered eating, social networks 
 

5 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
Introduction 
Food is an integral part of daily life and has profound consequences on our wellbeing. 
Beyond nutrients consumed, eating attitudes and behaviors contribute to the course and 
prevention of chronic disease and mental health (Belloc & Breslow, 1972; Nishida, Uauy, 
Kumanyika, & Shetty, 2004). Because eating attitudes have such profound consequences, it is 
important to understand which factors influence them and how. A factor that possibly affects 
eating attitudes is social media use or Social Network Sites (SNS) use. Mass media use and SNS 
use have been found to be associated in different ways with eating patterns, EDs and related 
variables (Elfhag & Morey, 2008; Pater, Haimson, Andalibi, & Mynatt, 2016; Santarossa, 2015; 
Vaterlaus, Patten, Roche, & Young, 2015). The aim of this study is to expand understanding of the 
relationship between SNS and eating attitudes and to explore whether social media use affects 
eating patterns. 
Eating patterns 
  
Food practices are socially, culturally and historically embedded in daily life and involve 
far more than mere nutrient intake (Neely, Walton, & Stephens, 2014). It is a common myth that 
people eat due to an internal state of physiologic hunger alone; what drives our eating behaviors is 
in fact much more complex and diverse (van Strien, Frijters, Bergers, & Defares, 1986). For 
example, we sometimes eat because we smell something delicious or see food that is appetizing. 
This is an example of "external eating", defined as "eating in response to food-related stimuli 
(such as smell sight or taste), regardless of the internal state of hunger or satiety". The eating 
behavior of external eaters is guided by external rather than inner cues, arguably because they  
have lost the ability to recognize and act upon internal hunger cues (van Strien et al., 1986, p. 296). 
Researchers have linked external eating to overeating and obesity via various 
mechanisms. First, researchers suggest that individuals who engage in external eating overeat due 
to a poor recognition of physical hunger and heightened sensitivity to external food cues 
(O’Reilly, Cook, Spruijt-Metz, & Black, 2014). Second, external eating was found to be associated 

6 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
with emotional eating, which involve disregarding internal hunger cues and eating despite their 
absence (Ouwens, van Strien, & van Leeuwe, 2009; van Strien et al., 1986). This inability to 
distinguish between emotional arousal and physical hunger leads to overeating in response to 
emotions (O’Reilly et al., 2014). Third, external eating has been found to be associated with the 
personality trait of impulsivity and with lack of self-discipline (Elfhag & Morey, 2008; Ouwens et 
al., 2009). Forth, it has been linked with dysregulated eating behaviors such as binge eating in 
people of average and above-average weight, with  and without eating disorders (EDs) (Elfhag & 
Morey, 2008; Vervaet, Van Heeringen, & Audenaert, 2004). 
  
Another food-related experience found to be intertwined with impulsive eating behaviors 
and external eating is cravings (Neely et al., 2014). Food cravings can be defined as "intense and 
irresistible desires to consume a particular type of food that differs from hunger by their 
specificity and intensity" (Kahathuduwa, Binks, Martin, & Dawson, 2017, p. 1). The concept of 
food cravings is distinct from hunger, which is not necessarily a precondition for food craving. 
Indeed, food cravings can emerge even when hunger is reduced (Chen, Dong, Jackson, Zhuang, & 
Chen, 2017). Intuitively, food cravings lead to an increase in food consumption. Overweight and 
obese people experience higher levels of craving for energy-dense foods (Kahathuduwa et al., 
2017). Furthermore, food cravings has been found to mediate the association between body mass 
index (BMI) and addiction-like eating behavior in obese and in people with EDs (Kahathuduwa et 
al., 2017). Cravings often precipitate and trigger binge-eating episodes in both non-obese and 
obese individuals (Crowley et al., 2014) and are more frequent in obese women with EDs (binge-
eating disorder and night-eating syndrome) than women without EDs. The binge-purge eating 
patterns characteristics of bulimia have been explained by food cravings, with over 70% of people 
with this disorder attributing their binge eating to cravings for specific foods, especially sweet 
foods. However, food craving can occur in individuals of any weight, with and without EDs and 
the mechanisms underlying their association are yet to be fully understood.  
Tough the notion of food cravings may be intuitive, its definition, measurement and 
underlying mechanisms are complex (Chen et al., 2017; Kahathuduwa et al., 2017). Food craving 

7 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
may be situational and state-like, or characteristic of a person and therefore trait-like. In addition, 
food craving is a hypothetical, internal construct and therefore cannot be directly measured 
(Weingarten & Elston, 1990). Hence, it is usually measured in research via self-report. The amount 
of food consumed is sometimes used to avoid self-report biases, but consumption measures are 
based on a circular definition: the level of cravings is measured by the amount of food eaten and 
that specific amount of food was eaten because it as craved at that level. Weingarten & Elston 
(1990) suggest that in order to solve food cravings measurement problems it can be operationalized 
in two ways (self-report and consumption). Combination of both measurement approaches could 
encompass subjective, internal experience and objective quantification. 
Social Media 
The role of media in our everyday lives has changed dramatically over recent decades and 
its influence on cultural and social practices, such as eating habits, is now extensive (McHale, 
Dotterer, & Kim, 2009). Emerging adults spend more time using the media, in particular social 
media, than doing any other activity (Coyne, Padilla-Walker, & Howard, 2013). Sixty five percent 
of all American adults and 90% of young American adults now use social networking sites (SNS) 
(Perrin, 2015). One of the most common and popular reasons for SNS use is viewing and sharing 
pictures (Bicen, 2015), including pictures of food. More than 10% of the pictures on SNS are of 
food (Hu, 2002), pictures of appetizing, tempting foods have been coined "food porn" (or hashtag 
#Foodporn). Food porn includes photos and videos of tempting food in the media, for example in 
cookbooks, magazines, television, blogs, websites, and social media platforms like Twitter, 
Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest (Rousseau, 2014).  
Use of the mass media and SNS, including picture viewing, have been found to be 
associated in different ways with eating patterns, EDs and related variables (Elfhag & Morey, 
2008; Pater et al., 2016; Santarossa, 2015; Vaterlaus et al., 2015). For instance, television viewing 
time is positively associated with BMI (Spence, Okajima, Cheok, Petit, & Michel, 2016a). It has 
also been consistently found that exposure to mass media is associated with negative body image 
and the idealization of thinness (Elfhag & Morey, 2008), which are associated with eating 

8 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
behaviors aimed at reducing body weight, and with EDs. However, these findings are based on 
correlational designs that preclude causality (Elfhag & Morey, 2008). Reviews of quantitative 
laboratory studies (Hausenblas et al., 2013) and of correlational, experimental and longitudinal 
studies (Ferguson, 2013) found that mass media exposure to cultural beauty ideals had a minimal 
to small influence on ED symptoms, with most of the effect limited to participants already at high 
risk for developing an ED. Similar to findings of mass media, finding of SNS indicate that time 
spent on SNS and problematic SNS use (such as Mood Alteration, Compulsivity and Excessive 
SNS Use) were found to be associated with higher levels of dieting and frequency of ED patterns 
such as binge eating and purging and self-esteem among young adults (Santarossa, 2015). 
Moreover, viewing pictures on SNS was found to be associated with the use of laxatives/diet 
pills/diuretics to lose/control weight (Santarossa, 2015). It should be noted that the few studies 
examining direct influence of social media use on body image and disordered eating found no 
direct influence (Ferguson, Muñoz, Garza, & Galindo, 2014; Perloff, 2014). Yet, the use of SNS 
seems to influence eating patterns in complex ways (Perloff, 2014), as suggested by the massive 
presence of pro-ED communities on SNS. In these communities pictures of emaciated people and 
guidelines on how to develop and maintain ED behaviors are shared to promote EDs (Pater et al., 
2016). Posts and YouTube videos with pro-ED content receive more 'likes' and views than health 
promoting content (Syed-Abdul et al., 2013). Mechanisms underlying the association between 
SNS use, eating and body image problems are poorly understood and there is a lack of research on 
a possible direct causal effect (Perloff, 2014). 
Underlying mechanisms of the relations between eating patterns and food porn 
Several mechanisms have been postulated to account for the correlation between eating 
patterns and viewing food pictures in the media. Four well-established cognitive theories best 
describe such mechanisms: Social learning theory, Priming theory, Attention theories and 
Reward theories (Valkenburg, Peter, & Walther, 2016). The first cognitive theory that strives to 
explain this association is social learning theory (or social-cognitive theory) (Valkenburg et al., 
2016). According to social learning theory, individuals learn from observing others' behavior 

9 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
about incentives (outcome of an action or reinforcement) and expectancies (expected likelihood 
that a certain behavior will be reinforced) ( Bandura, 1969; Rosenstock, Strecher, & Becker, 1988). 
Theorists who use social learning theory to explain the relationship between eating patterns and 
viewing food pictures on the media suggest that what and how much we eat is influenced by 
culturally and socially expected reinforcements learned via the media (Nestle et al., 2009). For 
instance, viewing a picture of appetizing food posted on the social media with many likes 
facilitate the expectation that we will be popular (reinforcement) if we eat this food (potential 
behavior). The behavior of other people is another important external behavioral cue, and people 
automatically mimic others’ eating behaviors, including food choice and amount, without 
realizing they are doing so (Harris, Bargh, & Brownell, 2009). 
The second well-established cognitive theory that strives to account for the association 
between food pictures and eating patterns is Priming theory (Valkenburg et al., 2016). Priming 
theorists suggest that the effect of food content presented via media on eating patterns can occur 
outside of participants’ intention or awareness but has far-reaching potential (Harris et al., 2009). 
"Priming" refers to the effect of an external stimulus on the way people react to subsequent 
stimuli. When a concept and its associations are activated, their activation becomes easier 
(Roskos-Ewoldsen, Roskos-Ewoldsen, & Carpentier, 2002). Media priming research has 
demonstrated the effect of primes on complex social and physical behaviors; for example, 
children and adults who viewed food advertisement as a prime consumed afterwards a greater 
amount of healthy and  unhealthy foods (Harris et al., 2009).  
Third, cognitive theories of attention describe how attention functions might mediate the 
way food porn pictures viewing affect eating patterns. These theories suggest that different people 
might be affected differently by food stimuli due to differences in attention mechanisms 
functions. Because one of the brain’s most important functions is to seek nutritious foods, a 
largely visual activity (Spence et al., 2015), it is only reasonable that visual food stimuli are 
allocated more attention and that cognitive mechanisms are heavily affected by the sight of food. 
Indeed, the visual search for food is mediated by the attentional and reward systems, as well as by 

10 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
complex cycles of hunger. Attentional function is the behavioral and cognitive process of 
selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, while ignoring other perceptive 
information (Spelke, Hirst, & Neisser, 1976). An experimental paradigm widely used in research to 
measure attention allocation is perceptional bias, a faster response to stimulus receiving more 
attention. Individuals with an ED (bulimia and anorexia nervosa) showed greater perception bias 
toward food pictures than restrained eaters (RE), a group at risk for ED but without a clinical 
diagnosis (Spence, Okajima, Cheok, Petit, & Michel, 2016b). Food words caused greater attention 
in REs than non REs (during the Stroop task), and this was not altered by a food preload or an 
appetizer. This suggests that attention allocation in susceptible individuals is unrelated to satiety, 
and might indicate that dysfunctional cognitions occur before disordered eating behavior begins 
(Brooks, Prince, Stahl, Campbell, & Treasure, 2011; Spence et al., 2016a). 
Reward system is the fourth theoretical concept that might explains possible underlying 
mechanism of the relationship between food stimuli and eating patterns. The incentive theory 
proposes that people are pulled toward behaviors that lead to rewards and pushed away from 
actions that might lead to negative consequences (Bandura, 1977). Reward system activity 
determines the degree of pleasure a certain individual experience or expect from a specific stimuli 
(Stoeckel et al., 2008). Individual differences in activity levels of the reward system shape 
behaviour and cognitive processes and thus might explain why certain individuals are more 
vonerable to stimuli such as food porn. Individuals with binge eating disorder and bulimia 
nervosa experience greater reward sensitivity, brain activation, and arousal than controls, after 
viewing images of pleasant food (Spence et al., 2016a). In addition, neuroimaging studies show 
that individuals who are overweight may anticipate more reward from food intake, but experience 
less sensory pleasure from eating (Spence et al., 2016a). Other neuroimaging studies demonstrated 
that high-fat food images were processed differently, and more rapidly than low-fat food images 
(Spence et al., 2016a). Also, REs consumed significantly more food than non REs and reported 
more food-related thoughts in response to food cues. All these findings show that even though 

11 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
clinical and non-clinical people of all BMIs react to food stimuli, differences between those 
groups have yet to be fully mapped (Spence et al., 2016a). 
The present study 
The focus of the present study is the potential consequences of the growing social media. 
Peoples' vast preoccupation with pictures posted on the social media may influence their food-
related pattern, such as external eating and food cravings and subsequently ED symptoms. A 
possible causal relationship should therefore be examined. The aim of this study is to examine 
such a causal link by conducting a controlled manipulation. This study aimed to expand our 
understanding of the consequences of social media use on two specific eating patterns, external 
eating and food cravings. We hypothesized that (1) Viewing appetizing food pictures will result in 
higher rates of external eating and food than viewing other, food-neutral pictures; (2) watching 
appetizing food pictures will lead participants to order greater amounts of different kinds of food 
cravings; (3) The effect of viewing food pictures on external eating, food cravings and food orders 
will be greater for participants with disordered eating patterns than for other participants.   
Method 
Participants 
Data was collected from 165 young adults aged 18-35 years (M=25.7, SD=3.91) who completed all 
questionnaire items including the manipulation check. Females (N=141) accounted for 85% of the 
sample and males (N=24) accounted for 14.5%. The vast majority of participants (N=153; 92.7%) 
were recruited via Hebrew-speaking social media sites, mostly via normative Facebook groups 
focused on regional interests, and giving and swapping second hand possessions. Twelve (7.3%) 
participants were Behavioral Sciences students at the Ruppin Academic Center who received 
credit points in exchange for participation. Most participants defined themselves as secular 
(N=106; 64%), 24 as traditional (14.5%) and 33 as religious (20%). Participants were randomly 

12 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
assigned to view a video clip showing pictures of appetizing foods (experimental group) or neutral 
pictures of tourist destinations (control group).  Full demographics are provided in table 1. 
Design   
The experimental design consisted of a video manipulation including two groups. 
Participants in the experimental group viewed a video presenting a travel story that included many 
pictures of food and the control participants viewed the same video without the food pictures. 
Additional independent variables were SNS use, SNS food preoccupation and disordered eating. 
The dependent variables were eating-related: external eating, food craving and food selection 
(type and amount). 
Measures 
Manipulation stimuli. 
In order to investigate the effect of food-porn on SNS platform, participants were 
assigned to either an experimental or control manipulation group. In order to manipulate exposure 
to food-porn on SNS experimental group was manipulated by watching a video that contained 
pictures of appetizing foods as well as pictures of neutral content. Participants of the control group 
watched a similar video that contained only pictures of neutral content. All pictures (of food and 
neutral content) were obtained from SNS, particularly Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. All food 
pictures were obtained from pages or hash-tags dedicated to food porn. Pictures of appetizing 
foods consisted of three types of foods that were found to be mostly posted and viewed on food 
porn sites: healthy foods (such as colorful salads), high calorie foods dense with fats and 
carbohydrates (such as hamburger with french-fries) and sugar dense desserts (such as chocolate 
cakes) (Chen et al., 2017). The characteristics of the videos were as identical as possible in order to 
ensure that any differences between the groups are due to viewing the food pictures: both of the 
videos had the same duration (3:34 minuets) and number of pictures (28); all neutral pictures  
presented in the experimental video (13) were presented in the control video as well. In order to 
mimic the environment of social media and to conceal the purpose of the manipulation, the videos 

13 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
were presented as a 'Vlog' '(A term derived from the combination of the words 'video' and 'blog' 
and is a form of web television popular on the social platform of YouTube) and were accompanied 
by an appropriate audio track. Both Vlogs described a girl's trip to London and corresponding 
neutral content pictures of tourist sites.  
Use of social Network Sites.  
A measure of social networking site use was used by Santarossa (2015) and 
translated into Hebrew by Neter (2018). Specifically, it tapped SNS use by asking about the 
number of SNS membership accounts, frequency of daily use and SNS food-related activities.  
SNS membership was assessed by asking participants whether they have an account in 
Facebook, Instagram WhatsApp and Pinterest. Positive responses were summed so that the scale 
ranged from 0 to 4. Participants were then asked about SNS use. Specifically, how long they spent 
daily on each of listed SNS, the number of followers they have on Instagram, the number of users 
they followed on Instagram and the number of WhattsApp groups they belonged to. Responses to 
questions asking about the amount of time spent daily on SNS were on a 5-point Likert scale 
ranging from 0 to 3-5 hours. Other responses required participants a specific number. A total score 
was calculated by summing Z scores of all items (α = .47, M=0, SD=3.21). Social Network Sites 
food preoccupation  was tapped by asking about the following eight SNS activities: frequency of 
posting food pictures on SNS, frequency of encountering food pictures, Instagram or Pinterest, 
frequency of sending food pictures on WhatsApp, frequency of receiving food pictures, frequency 
of following chefs, restaurants or brands, frequency of posting pictures of food one prepared, 
frequency of posting pictures of food one is about to eat, frequency of taking pictures of dishes 
ordered in a restaurant. An additional item asked about the number of memberships in food-
related groups on SNS. Responses to the first eight questions were on a 5-point scale, ranging 
from 1 (‘never’) to 5 (‘very often’) and responses on the last question was on an 8-point scale, 
ranging from 1 ('0') to 8 ('7 or more'). A total mean score of nine SNS activities was computed (α = 
.84, M=19.41, SD=5.79). 

14 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
Eating patterns. 
  
 
The construct was assessed by disorders eating external eating and food cravings. 
Disordered eating  was assessed using a Hebrew version of the Eating Attitudes Test 26 (EAT-26) 
(Koslowsky et al., 1992). The EAT-26 is a measure of symptoms and characteristics of EDs that is 
widely used as a screen for EDs. It contains three subscales that assess dieting (e.g "I am aware of 
the calorie content of foods that I eat"), bulimia and food preoccupation (e.g "I find myself 
preoccupied with food") and oral control (e.g "I avoid eating when I am hungry"). The EAT-26 
consists of 26 items scaled on a six point Likert scale ranging from 1 ('never') to 6 ('always'). Each 
answer was scored so that the three least frequent categories (“never,” “rarely,” and “sometimes”) 
were given a score of 0, “often” was scored as 1, “usually” was scored as 2, and “always” was 
given a score of 3. After 25th item was reversed, a mean score was computed (α = .86, M=12.62, 
SD=9.3).  
Food cravings  were assessed using the state subscale of the Food Craving Questionnaire 
(FCQ-S) (Cepeda-Benito, Gleaves, Willams, & Erath, 2000). The FCQ-S consists of 15 self-report 
items scored on a five point Likert scale that measure five factors: intense desire to eat (e.g. "I 
have an intense desire to eat [one or more specific foods]"), anticipation for positive reinforcement 
(e.g. "eating [one or more specific foods] would feel wonderful"), anticipation of relief from 
negative states (e.g. "If I ate something, I wouldn't feel so sluggish and lethargic"), lack of control 
over eating (e.g. "If I had [one or more specific foods], I could not stop eating it.") and cravings as 
physiological sate (e.g. "I am hungry"). The questionnaire was translated into Hebrew for the 
purpose of this study using a back translation procedure (Su & Parham, 2002). A total mean score 
of cravings was computed (α = .90, M=40.96, SD=11.06). 
  
External eating was assessed using the Hebrew version of the external eating subscale in 
the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) (Samuel & Cohen, 2018). The external eating 
subscale is a self-report questionnaire that contains 10 statements scored on a five point Likert 
scale (e.g " If you see others eating, do you also have the desire to eat?"). A total mean score of 
external eating was computed (α = .82, M=33.41, SD=5.62). 

15 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
Food selection. 
A menu was designed in order to measure a behavioral aspect of the effect of the 
manipulation on eating patterns, in addition to self-reports. As Weingarten & Elston (1990) have 
suggested, combining measurements of both self-report and behavior might solve possible 
measurement problems. Participants were asked to choose from a menu foods they would like to 
eat immediately. The menu included three sections: starter, main course and dessert. Participants 
were instructed to order one food from each section. It was found that three types of foods were 
mostly posted and viewed on food porn sites: healthy foods (such as colorful salads), high calorie 
foods dense with fats and carbohydrates (such as hamburger with french-fries) and sugar dense 
desserts. Thus, each section of the menu (starters, main dishes and dessert) contained foods that 
matched at list two of these categories. Participants' responses were coded in two different 
variables: the first describing the size of portions they ordered (menu food size) and the second 
counted the number of healthy food types they chose (menu food type). To compute the menu 
food size each response was given a score ranging from 1 (small portion) to 3 (big portion) and all 
scores were summed (M=5.75, SD= 1.44). To compute menu food type each response was given a 
score ranging from 1 (unhealthy food choice) to 3 (healthy food choice) and all scores were 
summed (M=5.25, SD= 1.85). Figure 1 displays the menu.  
Procedure 
After receiving an explanation about the study and providing informed consent online, 
participants were directed to a link where they responded to online questionnaires. Initially, 
demographic attributes, SNS food preoccupation and disturbed eating were assessed. Participants 
were then randomly assigned to view a video clip showing pictures of appetizing foods 
(experimental group) or neutral pictures of tourist destinations (control group). After viewing the 
video, participants responded to scales assessing external eating and food cravings, and were also 
asked to order food they would like to eat immediately from a hypothetical menu. Participants 

16 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
were given a chance to submit theie name to a 200 shekel price lottery. The study was approved by 
the Ruppin Academic center IRB. 
Statistical analyses 
Descriptive statistics were computed to describe the demographic characteristics of 
participants, as well of the key variables of SNS use, disturbed eating, food cravings, external 
eating and menu choices (type and amount). The main analysis examined the effect of the video 
manipulation on external eating, food cravings and type and amount of food ordered, using 
MANCOVA, and disordered eating was entered as a covariate. All statistical analyses were 
performed using SPSS 23 (IBM SPSS Statistics, New York, USA). 
Results 
Descriptive for demographic and key variables were computed and examined in order to 
characterize the study sample. BMI distribution was compatible to BMI distribution in the general 
Israeli population (Greenberg, Cwikel, & Mirsky, 2007). Disordered eating rates of the sample 
were as expected of Israeli population of young adults ranging from 5 to 22 percent (Katz, 2014)  
since 18.2% (N=30) of the sample had EAT-26 scored exceeding the cut-off point of 19 (Garner, 
Olmstead, Bohr, & Garfinkel, 1982). Membership on social media sites was high (M=2.82, 
SD=0.75 on a scale ranging from 0 to 4). The experimental group included 94 participants and the 
control group 71. No differences were observed between groups in age, gender or levels of 
disordered eating.  
Main effect of the manipulation and disturbed eating on eating patterns and bivariate 
associations with demographic attributes 
A one-way MANCOVA was conducted in order to test the main hypotheses and 
determine whether or not the type of video participants watched (food \ neutral pictures) affected 
their external eating, food cravings, size and type of food portions they chose from the menu, 
while controlling for disordered eating levels. As evident in table 2, there was no significant effect 

17 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
(F(1,162)=.47, p=.76) of the video type on external eating (F(1,162)=.48, p=.49), food cravings 
(F(1,162)=.77., p=.38) or type (F(1,162)=.02., p=.89) / size of food portions chosen (F(1,162)=.45., 
p=.50), after controlling for disordered eating. The covariate, disturbed eating, had significant 
main effect on external eating (F(162)=11.46, p<.001), food cravings (F(162)=7, p<.01) and type of 
food selected from a menu (F(162)=6.89, p<.01). Participants with disordered eating had higher 
level of external eating, food cravings and selected less healthy food types. Disordered eating also 
had a marginal effect on the size of food portions selected from the menu (F(1,162)=3.02, p<.08), so 
that participants with high disordered eating levels chose bigger food portions.  
Aassociations between SNS use and eating patterns (disordered eating external eating and 
food cravings) and menu choices (food type and size) were computed. The means, SD and inter-
correlations are displayed in Table 3. As evident in table 3, SNS indicators had week to moderate 
significant positive associations with one another (r=0.24 to r=0.50). Eating patterns (external 
eating, food cravings and disordered eating) also showed weak to moderate significant positive 
associations with one another (r=0.20 to r=0.55). There was no significant association between the 
size and type of food participants ordered from the menu, but menu selections variables generally 
correlated with eating patterns: the size of the portions ordered positively correlated with external 
eating and cravings but not with disordered eating. Also the type of food seleected correlated 
weakly and negatively with disordered eating and correlated weakly and positively with external 
eating and cravings. SNS food preoccupation was weakly and positively associated with 
disordered eating, food craving and size of portions ordered from the menu, but SNS 
preoccupation was not significantly associated with external eating and type of foods selected.  
Interaction between the manipulation and disordered eating 
To test the hypothesis that the effect of manipulation was greater for individuals with high 
levels of disordered eating, a moderation analysis was conducted separately for each of the 
dependent variables. In order to check whether disordered eating moderated the relationship 
between the manipulation and each of the dependent variables (external eating, food cravings, size 
of portions ordered and type of food ordered from the menu) a hierarchical multiple regression 

18 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
analysis was conducted separately for each of the dependent variables. After centring disordered 
eating group, the group–by-disordered eating interaction term was computed and the hierarchical 
regression was conducted in two steps. In the first step, the effects of group and disturbed eating 
were entered and in the second step the interaction was added to the regression model. Full results 
are displayed in table 4 indicating that these variables accounted for a significant amount of 
variance in external eating (R2=.068, F(3,161)=3.89, p=.01) and food cravings (R2=.046, 
F(3,161)=2.60, p=.05), for a marginal amount of variance in type of food ordered (R2=.043, 
F(3,161)=2.43, p=.07) and for insignificant variance of portion size of food ordered (R2=.035, 
F(3,161)=1.95, p=.12). The interaction step was insignificant for external eating, food cravings, 
portion size and type of food ordered. Thus, the hypothesis that disordered eating moderates the 
relationship between the manipulation and external eating, food cravings menu size or menu type 
was rejected. 
Post-hoc analysis 
In order to better understand the association and relationship between the key variables, 
several moderation models were examined. To test the possibility that SNS food preoccupation 
moderated the relationship between the manipulation and each of the dependent variables 
(external eating, food cravings, portion size and type of food ordered from a menu), a hierarchical 
multiple regression analysis was conducted separately for each of the dependent variables. After 
centring SNS food preoccupation and manipulation group and computing the group–by-SNS food 
preoccupation interaction term the hierarchical regression was conducted in two steps. In the first 
step, group and SNS food preoccupation were included and in the second step the interaction was 
added to the regression model. Full results are displayed in table 4. Result indicated that these 
variables accounted for a significant amount of variance in food cravings (R2=.092, F(3,161)=5.43, 
p=.001) and for insignificant amount of variance in external eating (R2=.028, F(3,161)=1.57, p=.2), 
portion size (R2=.033, F(3,161)=1.83, p=.14) and type of food ordered from the menu (R2=.028, 
F(3,161)=1.55, p=.2). The interaction step was insignificant for external eating, food cravings or 
portion size ordered from the menu. Therefore, SNS food preoccupation didn’t moderate the 

19 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
relationship between manipulation group and external eating, food cravings or portion size. Still, 
a marginally significance interaction for type of food ordered was found. Thus, the hypothesis that 
SNS food preoccupation moderated the relationship between the manipulation group and type of 
food chosen from a menu was supported. Johnson-Neyman output is displayed in table 6 and 
interaction is displayed in figure 2. Examination of Johnson-Neyman output and interaction plot 
indicates that the marginal moderation effect derives solely from high levels of SNS 
preoccupation (Z scores higher than 1). Specifically, that viewing food pictures didn’t affect 
participants with low to moderate levels of SNS food preoccupation to select different food types, 
but marginally affected participants with high levels of SNS food preoccupation to select less 
healthy food types compared to participants who viewed neutral pictures.  
Discussion 
The aim of this study was to investigate whether food porn influences eating patterns. 
More specifically, it was hypothesized that exposure to appetizing food pictures on SNS would 
increase levels of food cravings and external eating and affect the type and amount of food 
ordered from a menu. It was also assumed that these effects would be greater for individuals with 
disordered eating than for individuals without disordered eating. Contrary to expectations, 
appetizing food pictures did not affect external eating, food cravings, or the type or amount of 
food ordered from a menu. Additionally, viewing food pictures did not affect individuals with 
disordered eating more than other individuals for either of the dependent variables. In other 
words, disordered eating did not moderate the relationship between viewing pictures of appetizing 
food and external eating, food craving or the amount or type of foods individuals chose from a 
menu.  
Nevertheless, results indicated that SNS food preoccupation was significantly associated 
with disordered eating, food craving and the size of portions ordered from a menu, but not with 
external eating and type of foods chosen. Disordered eating had a significant bivariate association 
with external eating, food cravings and type of food chosen from the menu so that participants 
with high disordered eating levels had high level of external eating, food cravings and chose less 

20 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
healthy food types. Disordered eating also had marginal effect on size of food selected from the 
menu so that participants with high disordered eating levels chose bigger food portions. There 
was no association between the size and the type of food participants ordered from the menu, but 
menu choices correlated with most of eating patterns: the size of food ordered correlated with 
external eating and cravings but not with disordered eating. Also the type of food correlated 
weakly with all eating patterns at. 
Further investigation of the relationship between key variables showed that SNS food 
preoccupation marginally moderated the relationship between viewing food pictures and the type 
of foods chosen from a menu. More specifically, that watching food pictures didn’t affect 
participants with low to moderate levels of SNS food preoccupation to choose different food 
types, but marginally affected participants with high levels of SNS food preoccupation to choose 
less healthy food types. 
The results replicate and extend previous findings documenting the association between 
SNS use and eating patterns. Previous studies found that watching pictures on SNS was 
associated with use of laxatives/diet pills/diuretics to lose/control weight (Santarossa, 2015). Also, 
Neter (2018) found that SNS food preoccupation was associated with external eating and food 
cravings (trait). The association found in this study between situational food cravings and SNS 
food preoccupation corroborates these findings and adds knowledge about situational cravings. 
Conversely, the present findings of no significant association between external eating and SNS 
food preoccupation are inconsistent with Neter's (2018). This discrepancy may indicate that the 
association with external eating is not stable across samples and needs further corroboration. 
Previous findings on the association between eating patterns and other aspects of SNS use, 
such as SNS membership have yielded contradicting conclusions (Harris, Starcevic, Ma, Zhang, & 
Aboujaoude, 2017; Santarossa, 2015). Some previous findings suggest that frequency of online use 
is not associated with pathology (Harris et al., 2017). Other incongruent findings suggest an 
association between time spent on SNS and high levels of dieting and frequency of ED behaviors 
such as binge eating purging and use of laxatives (Santarossa, 2015). Results of the present work of 

21 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
a significant association between SNS use, disordered eating and food cravings, are consistent 
with previous findings suggesting that online use is indeed associated with disorder-like eating 
patterns. 
Finding of this study implicate that while SNS preoccupation is correlated with eating 
patterns, it does not influence them directly; it is consistent with and expand previous finding 
regarding mass media exposure. Previous research on the mass media has repeatedly documented 
an association between mass media exposure and eating patterns and related variables, but little to 
no causal effect of mass media exposure on eating patterns and related variables (Ferguson, 2013; 
Hausenblas et al., 2013). In other words, in the case of mass media correlation does not imply 
causation because findings suggest that mass media exposure does not directly influence eating 
patterns even though eating patterns level fluctuate according to exposure to mass media. Similar 
to findings of mass media, finding of SNS indicate that time spent on SNS, viewing pictures on 
SNS and problematic SNS use (such as Mood Alteration, Compulsivity and Excessive SNS Use) 
were found to be associated with higher levels of dieting and frequency of ED patterns 
(Santarossa, 2015). But the few studies examining causal influence of social media use on body 
image and disordered eating found no direct influence (Ferguson et al., 2014; Perloff, 2014). Result 
of this study support previous research on SNS suggesting that while SNS use is correlated with 
eating patterns, it does not influence them directly, as in the case of traditional media. In other 
words, findings of the present work suggest that the relationship between eating patterns and mass 
media resemble the relationship between eating patterns and SNS.  
There could be several explanations to why SNS use correlates with eating patterns, even 
though it does not influence them directly (Ferguson et al., 2014; Perloff, 2014; Santarossa, 2015). 
First explanation might be that the associated between SNS use or food preoccupation on SNS 
and eating patterns isn’t meaningful. In other words, just because the two variables (SNS use and 
eating patterns) seem to fluctuate in tandem, that doesn’t prove they are meaningfully related to 
one another, as suggested by finding of this study ruling causality. The association might be 
caused, for example, by a third variable that has meaningful relationship with eating patterns and 

22 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
also has separate meaningful relationship with SNS use. A second explanation might be that 
contrary to the explanation that SNS food preoccupation influence eating patterns, that prior 
eating patterns influence SNS food preoccupation. For example, perhaps individuals with higher 
levels of disordered eating patterns are influenced by their patterns to be more preoccupied with 
food on SNS. This explanation is consistent with the massive presence of pro-ED communities 
on SNS. These communities inter-alia promote EDs and food porn (Lavis, 2017; Pater et al., 2016). 
Results of the present study document an association between disordered eating and SNS use as 
well as association between food preoccupation and disordered eating, as measured prior to any 
manipulation. That means that disordered eating levels were associated with SNS use and SNS 
food occupation even before food porn was manipulated. These findings support both of the 
suggested explanations, but can't determine one explanation as superior to the other. 
Finding of this study suggest that SNS food preoccupation marginally moderated the 
effect of viewing food pictures on the type of food selected from a menu. More specifically, that 
watching food pictures didn’t affect participants with low to moderate levels of SNS food 
preoccupation to select different food types, but marginally affected participants with high levels 
of SNS food preoccupation to select less healthy food types from the menu. Most research has 
suggested that viewing food porn has a negative effect in health, BMI and eating patterns  
(Santarossa, 2015). This finding of the present work suggest that this might be true for some 
individuals but not for others. Individual attributes, such as food occupation on SNS, might alter 
the effect of viewing food porn. Previous research indicate several constructs believed to 
influence the effects of food porn such as psychological characteristics, an ED diagnosis and the 
ability to imagine the multisensory experience of eating the food viewed (Brooks et al., 2011; 
Petit, D Cheok, & Oullier, 2016). Our findings add SNS food preoccupation to these constructs and 
suggest it plays a key role.  
This study has several strengths. First and foremost, this in one of the first studies that 
conducted an experimental design in order to check for causality on top of association between 
SNS use and eating patterns. Second, results of this study add important information to previous 

23 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
studies describing the characteristics of the continually growing SNS use. Most important 
addition comes from results that suggest eating patterns have similar relationship with SNS to the 
relationship with mass media. Third, the experimental design of this study mimics real-world 
exposure to food porn by introducing the food porn manipulation to participants as a 'Vlog', a 
common SNS phenomenon. 
This study also has several limitations. First, participants were recruited by convenience 
sampling using social networks, which may have resulted in sample bias of higher SNS use rates 
compared to rates of the general population. Indeed, SNS membership rates were high in the study 
sample (with average of 2.82 on a scale ranging from 0 to 4). Second, the sample size was small 
which may have resulted in overlooking effect existing in the general population. Third, the 
translation of the food craving questionnaire has not yet been validated. Forth, food porn 
manipulation was designed to emulate food porn on SNS but was presented in an experimental 
environment obvious as separate from SNS to participants. Even though it's highly likely that the 
manipulation inflicted effects similar to actual food porn on SNS, the manipulation differed from 
real-world SNS use in several ways. Participants were exposed to food pictures during the 
manipulation video for only three minutes, short exposure time compared to real-life SNS use. 
Also, participants were exposed to the manipulation video only a single time, whereas real-life 
SNS use is more likely to expose people to food porn repeatedly and maybe even daily. These 
differences may have resulted in a small effect of food porn on eating patterns that misrepresented 
real-world effect. Another possibility is that watching the manipulation video was passive while 
SNS use consists of both passive (e.g. watching posts other users post) and active (e.g. writing 
comment, posting pictures, actively searching) interactions (Alloway & Alloway, 2012). There is a 
possibility that passive exposure to food porn influence eating patterns differently than active 
exposure. Fifth, self report tools were used to measure mental constructs such as external eating 
and food cravings, which may have misrepresented unconscious cognitive effects or were 
subjects to self-report bias.   

24 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
 
Future studies should address and remedy these limitations and further investigate 
characteristics associated with food porn in several ways. As this study is one of the first studies 
to investigate the complex relationship of eating patterns and SNS use, future studies should 
further test for causality in order to determine whether this relationship resembles the relationship 
between eating patterns and mass media. These studies could manipulate food porn by prolonged 
exposure to food pictures, perhaps trough several days. These studies could also manipulate food 
porn in both active and passive aspects of SNS use, in order to better mimic real-world SNS use. 
Hopefully such manipulations could create a more substantial effect of food porn on eating 
patterns if such one exists. Alternatively, as suggested by Branley & Covey (2017), a longitudinal 
study could be used to track actual social media use and behavior over long time periods (Cox & 
Cox, 1998). 
  
Other studies could explore the possibilities that food porn does not affect eating patterns, 
but that prior individual eating patterns effects preoccupation with food on SNS and cause people 
to look for more food porn. These studies could employ a manipulated design testing for the effect 
of individual eating patterns level on SNS food preoccupation. For example by manipulating 
participants' situational food cravings and checking how much they are occupied with food on 
SNS or how much food porn they choose to consume. In addition, future studies could investigate 
postulated underlying mechanisms such as social learning and reward system activities. This 
could be achieved by neuroimaging (Spence et al., 2016b) and by assessing variables such as 
interpersonal qualities associated with social learning and EDs (Nestle et al., 2009). Another 
possible mechanism might be imaginative tendencies (the process of imagining the 
multidimensional experience of eating) previously found as a mediator of food porn affects (Lavis, 
2017; Petit et al., 2016). 
This study highlights the importance of conducting such future studies by pointing out the 
discrepancies between the association and causality between SNS use and eating patterns. The 
study is one of the first studies to addresses the need of understanding the continually growing use 
of SNS in the context of eating patterns.  

25 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
References 
 Alloway, T. P., & Alloway, R. G. (2012). The impact of engagement with social networking sites 
(SNSs) on cognitive skills. Computers in Human Behavior. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.04.015 
Bandura, A. (1969). Social-Learning Theory Of Identificatory Processes. Handbook of 
Socialization Theory and Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/19371918.2011.591629 
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological 
Review. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191 
Belloc, N. B., & Breslow, L. (1972). Relationship of physical health status and health practices. 
Preventive Medicine, 1(3), 409–421. https://doi.org/10.1016/0091-7435(72)90014-X 
Bicen, H. (2015). Determination of University Students’ Reasons Ofusing Social Networking Sites 
in their Daily Life. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 190(November 2014), 519–522. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.05.036 
Brooks, S., Prince, A., Stahl, D., Campbell, I. C., & Treasure, J. (2011). A systematic review and 
meta-analysis of cognitive bias to food stimuli in people with disordered eating behaviour. 
Clinical Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.09.006 
Cepeda-Benito, Gleaves, D. H., Willams, T. L., & Erath, S. A. (2000). The Development and 
Validation of the State and Trait Food-Cravings Questionnaires. Behavior Therapy, 
31(November 1998), 151–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(00)80009-X 
Chen, S., Dong, D., Jackson, T., Zhuang, Q., & Chen, H. (2017). Trait-based food-cravings are 
encoded by regional homogeneity in the parahippocampal gyrus. Appetite, 114, 155–160. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2017.03.033 
Cox, A. D., & Cox, D. (1998). Beyond “peer pressure”: A theoretical framework for understanding 
the varieties of social influence in adolescent risk behavior. Social Marketing Quarterly, 4(4), 
43–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/15245004.1998.9961017 
Coyne, S. M., Padilla-Walker, L. M., & Howard, E. (2013). Emerging in a Digital World: A 
Decade Review of Media Use, Effects, and Gratifications in Emerging Adulthood. Emerging 
Adulthood, 1(2), 125–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167696813479782 
Crowley, N., Madan, A., Wedin, S., Correll, J. A., Delustro, L. M., Borckardt, J. J., & Karl Byrne, 
T. (2014). Food cravings among bariatric surgery candidates. Eating and Weight Disorders, 
19(3), 371–376. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-013-0095-y 
Elfhag, K., & Morey, L. C. (2008). Personality traits and eating behavior in the obese: Poor self-
control in emotional and external eating but personality assets in restrained eating. Eating 
Behaviors, 9(3), 285–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2007.10.003 
Ferguson, C. J. (2013). In the eye of the beholder: Thin-ideal media affects some, but not most, 
viewers in a meta-analytic review of body dissatisfaction in women and men. Psychology of 
Popular Media Culture, 2(1), 20–37. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030766 
Ferguson, C. J., Muñoz, M. E., Garza, A., & Galindo, M. (2014). Concurrent and Prospective 
Analyses of Peer, Television and Social Media Influences on Body Dissatisfaction, Eating 

26 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
Disorder Symptoms and Life Satisfaction in Adolescent Girls. Journal of Youth and 
Adolescence, 43(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9898-9 
Garner, D. M., Olmstead, M. P., Bohr, Y., & Garfinkel, P. . (1982). The eating attitudes test: 
Psychometric features and clinical correlates. Psychological Medicine, 12(1980), 871–878. 
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700049163 
Greenberg, L., Cwikel, J., & Mirsky, J. (2007). Cultural correlates of eating attitudes: A 
comparison between native-born and immigrant university students in Israel. International 
Journal of Eating Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.20313 
Harris, J. L., Bargh, J. A., & Brownell, K. D. (2009). Priming effects of television food advertising 
on eating behavior. Health Psychology : Official Journal of the Division of Health 
Psychology, AmericHarris, J. L., Bargh, J. A., & Brownell, K. D. (2009). Priming Effects of 
Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior. Health Psychology : Official Journal of the 
Division, 28(4), 404–413. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014399 
Harris, K. M., Starcevic, V., Ma, J., Zhang, W., & Aboujaoude, E. (2017). Suicidality, 
psychopathology, and the internet: Online time vs. online behaviors. Psychiatry Research, 
255(June), 341–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.06.012 
Hausenblas, H. A., Campbell, A., Menzel, J. E., Doughty, J., Levine, M., & Thompson, J. K. 
(2013). Media effects of experimental presentation of the ideal physique on eating disorder 
symptoms: A meta-analysis of laboratory studies. Clinical Psychology Review. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.10.011 
Hu, F. B. (2002). Dietary pattern analysis: a new direction in nutritional epidemiology. Current 
Opinion in Lipidology, 13(1), 3–9. https://doi.org/10.1097/00041433-200202000-00002 
Kahathuduwa, C. N., Binks, M., Martin, C. K., & Dawson, J. A. (2017). Extended calorie 
restriction suppresses overall and specific food cravings: A systematic review and a meta-
analysis. Obesity Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12566 
Katz, B. (2014). Gender and disordered eating of adolescents in Israel. Israel Journal of Psychiatry 
and Related Sciences. 
Koslowsky, M., Scheinberg, Z., Bleich, A., Mark, M., Apter, A., Danon, Y., & Solomon, Z. (1992). 
The Factor Structure and Criterion Validity of the Short Form of the Eating Attitudes Test. 
Journal of Personality Assessment. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa5801_3 
Lavis, A. (2017). Food porn, pro-anorexia and the viscerality of virtual affect: Exploring eating in 
cyberspace. Geoforum. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.05.014 
McHale, S. M., Dotterer, A., & Kim, J.-Y. (2009). An Ecological Perspective on the Media and 
Youth Development. The American Behavioral Scientist, 52(8), 1186–1203. 
https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764209331541 
Neely, E., Walton, M., & Stephens, C. (2014). Young people’s food practices and social 
relationships. A thematic synthesis. Appetite, 82, 50–60. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2014.07.005 
Nestle, M., Wing, R., Birch, L., DiSogra, L., Drewnowski, A., Middleton, S., … Economos, C. 
(2009). Behavioral and Social Influences on Food Choice. Nutrition Reviews, 56(5), 50–64. 
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-4887.1998.tb01732.x 

27 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
Nishida, C., Uauy, R., Kumanyika, S., & Shetty, P. (2004). The joint WHO/FAO expert 
consultation on diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases: process, product and 
policy implications. Public Health Nutrition, 7(1A), 245–250. 
https://doi.org/10.1079/PHN2003592 
O’Reilly, G. A., Cook, L., Spruijt-Metz, D., & Black, D. S. (2014). Mindfulness-based 
interventions for obesity-related eating behaviours: A literature review. Obesity Reviews. 
https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12156 
Ouwens, M. A., van Strien, T., & van Leeuwe, J. F. J. (2009). Possible pathways between 
depression, emotional and external eating. A structural equation model. Appetite, 53(2), 245–
248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2009.06.001 
Pater, J., Haimson, O., Andalibi, N., & Mynatt, E. D. (2016). “Hunger Hurts but Starving Works:” 
Characterzing the Presentation of Eating Disorders Online. Proceedings of the 2016 
Computer Supported Cooperative Work Conference, (Accepted/In process). 
https://doi.org/10.1145/2818048.2820030 
Perloff, R. M. (2014). Social Media Effects on Young Women???s Body Image Concerns: 
Theoretical Perspectives and an Agenda for Research. Sex Roles, 71(11–12), 363–377. 
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-014-0384-6 
Perrin, A. (2015). 65% of Adults Now Use Social Networking Sites – a Nearly Tenfold Jump in the 
Past Decade. Pew Research Center, (October), 2005–2015. https://doi.org/202.419.4372 
Petit, O., D Cheok, A., & Oullier, O. (2016). Can Food Porn Make Us Slim? How Brains of 
Consumers React to Food in Digital Environments. Integrative Food, Nutrition and 
Metabolism, 3(1), 251–255. https://doi.org/10.15761/IFNM.1000138 
Rosenstock, I. M., Strecher, V. J., & Becker, M. H. (1988). Social learning theory and the health 
belief model. Health Education Quarterly, 15(2), 175–183. 
https://doi.org/10.1177/109019818801500203 
Roskos-Ewoldsen, D., Roskos-Ewoldsen, B., & Carpentier, F. R. D. (2002). Media Priming: A 
Synthesis. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. 
Samuel, L., & Cohen, M. (2018). Expressive suppression and emotional eating in older and 
younger adults: An exploratory study. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2018.06.012 
Santarossa, S. (2015). # Socialmedia : Exploring the Associations of Social Networking Sites and 
Body Image , Self-Esteem , Disordered Eating and / or Eating Disorders and the Impact of a 
Media Literacy Intervention, 195. 
Spelke, E., Hirst, W., & Neisser, U. (1976). Skills of divided attention. Cognition. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(76)90018-4 
Spence, C., Okajima, K., Cheok, A. D., Petit, O., & Michel, C. (2016a). Eating with our eyes: From 
visual hunger to digital satiation. Brain and Cognition, 110, 53–63. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2015.08.006 
Spence, C., Okajima, K., Cheok, A. D., Petit, O., & Michel, C. (2016b). Eating with our eyes: 
From visual hunger to digital satiation. Brain and Cognition, 110, 53–63. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2015.08.006 

28 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
Stoeckel, L. E., Weller, R. E., Cook, E. W., Twieg, D. B., Knowlton, R. C., & Cox, J. E. (2008). 
Widespread reward-system activation in obese women in response to pictures of high-calorie 
foods. NeuroImage. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.02.031 
Su, C. T., & Parham, L. D. (2002). Generating a valid questionnaire translation for cross-cultural 
use. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 56(5), 581–585. 
https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.56.5.581 
Syed-Abdul, S., Fernandez-Luque, L., Jian, W. S., Li, Y. C., Crain, S., Hsu, M. H., … Liou, D. M. 
(2013). Misleading health-related information promoted through video-based social media: 
Anorexia on youtube. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 
https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2237 
Valkenburg, P. M., Peter, J., & Walther, J. B. (2016). Media Effects: Theory and Research. In 
ANNUAL REVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY, VOL 67 (Vol. 67, pp. 315–338). 
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033608 
van Strien, T., Frijters, J. E. R., Bergers, G. P. A., & Defares, P. B. (1986). The Dutch Eating 
Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) for assessment of restrained, emotional, and external eating 
behavior. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 5(2), 295–315. 
https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-108X(198602)5:2<295::AID-EAT2260050209>3.0.CO;2-T 
Vaterlaus, J. M., Patten, E. V., Roche, C., & Young, J. A. (2015). Gettinghealthy: The perceived 
influence of social media on young adult health behaviors. Computers in Human Behavior, 
45, 151–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.013 
Vervaet, M., Van Heeringen, C., & Audenaert, K. (2004). Personality-Related Characteristics in 
Restricting Versus Binging and Purging Eating Disordered Patients. Comprehensive 
Psychiatry, 45(1), 37–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2003.09.008 
Weingarten, H. P., & Elston, D. (1990). The phenomenology of food cravings. Appetite, 15(3), 231–
246. https://doi.org/10.1016/0195-6663(90)90023-2 
 
 
 
 

Table 1 
Descriptive information of sample characteristics (N=165) 
Variable 
 
 
 
N(%) / Mean (SD) 
Age in years 
 
Range ; Interquartile range 
18-35; 23-28 
 
Mean (SD) 
 
 
25.7 (3.91) 
 
Median 
 
 
25 
 
Gender, N (%) 
Female 
 
 
140 (84.8) 
Male  
 
 
24  (14.5) 
Else 
 
 
 
1 (.6%) 
 
Religious identification, N (%) 
 
Religious 
 
 
33 (20)  
 
Traditional 
 
 
24 (14.5) 
 
Secular 
 
 
106 (64.2) 
 
BMI 
Variable 
 
 
 
N(%) / Mean (SD) 
 
Range ; Interquartile range 
16.85-44.62 ; 20.32-24.61 
 
 
Mean (SD) 
 
 
23.11 (3.32) 
 
Median 
 
 
22.20

Table 2 
Descriptive statistics and Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) of the effect of the 
manipulation group (watching food / neutral pictures) on each dependent variable (external eating, 
food cravings, food portion size and food type selected form the menu) 
 
 
Food group 
Control group 
F(1,162) 
 
Measure 
 
n=71 
n=94 
 
 
External eating 
M 
33.62 
33.24 
.48 
p=.49 
 
SD 
6.20 
5.16 
 
 
Food cravings 
M 
41.62 
40.46 
.77 
p=.38 
 
SD 
11.10 
11.07 
 
 
Food size from menu 
M 
5.65 
5.83 
.45 
p=.5 
 
SD 
1.28 
1.56 
 
 
Food type from menu 
M 
6.66 
6.56 
.02 
p=.89 
 
SD 
1.75 
1.98 
 
 
Note: *p< .05; ** p< 0.01; *** p<0.001

Table 3 
Descriptive and inter-correlations between SNSs use and eating patterns (N=179) 
 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
1. SNS membership 
-- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2. SNS use 
.28*** 
-- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3. SNS food preoccupation .24** 
.50*** 
-- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
4. Disordered eating  
-.04 
.25** 
.25** 
-- 
 
 
 
 
 
5. External eating 
-.04 
.11 
.15 
.25** 
-- 
 
 
 
 
6. Food cravings 
.00 
.21** 
.28*** 
.20* 
.55*** 
-- 
 
 
 
7. Food size from menu 
.06 
.02 
.17* 
.14 
.26** 
.32*** 
-- 
 
 
8. Food type from menu 
-.12 
.04 
-.08 
-.20** 
.17* 
.16* 
.08 
-- 
 
9. BMI 
-.10 
.00 
.10 
.22** 
-.05 
.14 
.27** 
.03 
-- 
 Mean 
2.82 
0 
19.41 
12.62 
33.41 
40.96 
5.75 
5.25 
23.11 
 SD 
.75 
3.2 
5.79 
9.3 
5.62 
11.06 
1.44 
1.85 
22.20 
 Α 
-- 
-- 
.84 
.86 
.9 
.82 
-- 
-- 
-- 
Note: *p< .05; ** p< 0.01; *** p<0.001 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Table 4  
Hierarchical multiple regression testing for moderation effect of disordered eating on the 
relationship between manipulation group (watching food / neutral pictures) and each dependent 
variables (external eating, food cravings, food portion size and food type selected form the menu)  
 
External eating  Food cravings  
Menu size 
 
Menu type 
Predictor 
ΔR2 
Β 
 ΔR2 
β 
 ΔR2 Β 
 ΔR2 
Β 
Step 1 
.068** 
 
 .046* 
 
 .035  
 .043Ϯ  
Group 
 
-.994 
  
-2.98 
  
-.31 
  
.188 
DE 
 
.101 
  
.041 
  
-.042   
-.010 
Step 2 
.001 
 
 .002 
 
 .013  
 .002 
 
Group 
 
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
DE 
 
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
DE*Group  
.032 
  
.12 
  
.04 
  
-.018 
Note. DE=Disordered Eating, N=164, Ϯp<0.1. *p<.05. **p<.01. ***p<.001 
 

Table 5  
Hierarchical multiple regression testing for moderation effect of SNS food preoccupation level on 
the relationship between the manipulation group (watching food / neutral pictures) and each 
dependent variable (external eating, food cravings, food portion size and food type selected form 
the menu) 
 
External eating 
 Food cravings 
 Menu size 
 Menu type 
Predictor 
ΔR2 
Β 
 ΔR2 
Β 
 ΔR2 
β 
 ΔR2 
β 
Step 1 
.028 
 
 .092*** 
 
 .033 
 
 .028 
 
Group 
 
-2.458 
  
-6.359 
  
.129 
  
1.739Ϯ 
SNSFP 
 
.362 
  
1.114** 
  
.037 
  
1.20 
Step 2 
.005 
 
 .01 
 
 .000 
 
 .021Ϯ 
 
           Group 
 
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
SNSFP 
 
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
SNSFP*Group 
 
-1.43 
  
-.377 
  
.003 
  
-.095Ϯ 
Note. SNSFP=SNS food preoccupation, n=164, Ϯp<0.1. *p<.05. **p<.01. ***p<.001 
 
 
 

34 
THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO FOOD IN SNS ON FOOD CRAVINGS ANDEXTERNAL EATING 
 
Table 6 
Johnson-Neyman output interpreting the how SNS food preoccupation moderated the relationship 
between manipulation group (watching food / neutral pictures) and healthiness of the type of food 
selected from the menu  
SNSFP  
Effect 
se 
T 
P 
9.6000       
.8277       
.5767      
1.4353       
.1531      
11.2000       
.6757       
.5089 
1.3278       
.1861      
12.8000       
.5237       
.4454      
1.1758       
.2414      
14.4000       
.3717       
.3884       
.9571       
.3399      
16.0000       
.2198       
.3411       
.6443       
.5203      
17.6000       
.0678       
.3080       
.2200 
.8261      
19.2000      
-.0842       
.2939      
-.2866       
.7748      
20.8000      
-.2362       
.3016      
-.7832       
.4346      
22.4000      
-.3882       
.3295     
-1.1783       
.2404     
24.0000      
-.5402       
.3731     
-1.4480       
.1496     
25.6000      
-.6922       
.4276     
-1.6188       
.1074     
27.2000      
-.8442       
.4894     
-1.7250       
.0865 Ϯ      
28.8000      
-.9962       
.5561     
-1.7915       
.0751 Ϯ     
30.4000     
-1.1482       
.6261     
-1.8340       
.0685 Ϯ     
32.0000     
-1.3002       
.6984     
-1.8617       
.0645 Ϯ     
33.6000     
-1.4522       
.7723     
-1.8802       
.0619 Ϯ     
35.2000     
-1.6041       
.8475     
-1.8927       
.0602 Ϯ     
36.8000     
-1.7561       
.9237     
-1.9013       
.0591 Ϯ     
38.4000     
-1.9081      
1.0005     
-1.9072       
.0583 Ϯ     
40.0000     
-2.0601      
1.0779     
-1.9112       
.0578 Ϯ     
Note. SNSFP= SNS food preoccupation, Ϯp<0.1. *p<.05. **p<.01. ***p<.001 
 

Figure 1 
Menu presented to participants in order to measure food type and amount they would have liked 
to eat immediately 
 

Figure 2 
SNS food preoccupation level moderate the effect of manipulation group (watching food / neutral 
pictures) on the healthiness of food types chosen from menu 
 
 
low 
moderate 
high 
Healty food slections 
SNS food preoccupation 
Control manipulation 
Food manipulation