Research paper
Cohen DA, Babey SH. Contextual influences on eating behaviours: heuristic processing and dietary choices. Obes Rev. 2012 Sep;13(9):766-79. doi:10.1111/j.1467-789X.2012.01001.x. PMID: 22551473. PMCID: PMC3667220.
Why we cite it
Comprehensive Obesity Reviews paper arguing that dietary behaviours are largely automatic responses to contextual food cues, not deliberate choices, drawing on dual process theory, behavioural economics, and neuroscience. Relevant to this project because it gathers evidence that food environments (accessibility, salience, portion size, variety) shape eating largely outside deliberate choice, and that people *mostly lack the capacity to consistently recognise, ignore or resist the contextual cues that encourage eating. It makes no comparison with willpower or education. That changing environments works better than relying on either is this library’s reading, which the review motivates and does not test (corrected 2026-09-10 from ”provides the evidence base for why changing food environments … is more effective than relying on willpower or education”; willpower, education and more effective* do not occur in the paper’s body).
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2012.01001.x · PubMed 22551473 · Publisher