The Effect of Food on

Decision Making
Scott Song
The Harker School

The Research Question

How is the decision

making process affected
by the consumption of
food?

Significance
A common belief is that consuming food
before a major exam or test will improve
performance and the decision making
process, resulting in a better score.
However, we wanted to determine whether
or not this is actually the case.

Background
A experiment conducted in 2014 by researcher
Denise de Ridder determined that hunger is
associated with advantageous decision making. 30
people participated in the experiment. All of the
participants were restricted from eating and
drinking (excluding water) prior to the experiment.
Some were assigned to partake in the experiment
before eating; others were assigned to partake in
the experiment after eating a required amount of
food.

Background Cont.
Participants in the previous experiment played a
card game with four decks of cards being laid
out. Each card in the deck had a dollar value and
possibly a penalty associated with it. Two of the
decks proved advantageous in the long run,
earning a positive net profit. Participants were
asked to take the cards in. However, the two
other decks were disadvantageous, earning a
negative net profit. The researchers concluded
that hungry participants selected more cards
from the advantageous deck than sated patients

Hypothesis
The people who participate in the
experiment before lunch will have a
high average score in both trials
compared to people who participate
in the experiment after lunch.

Procedure
A single-player card game was conducted in
which the participants must acquire the
highest net profit. Each card had a positive
value, while some cards also had penalties.
Four decks were displayed for the
participants. In the game, the participants
were required to take twenty cards in total.
The participants were required to partake in
the experiment twice.

Procedure Cont.
Two of the decks had larger values for both
penalties and earnings, the other two having
smaller values for penalties and earnings. Two
of the decks also had smaller, more frequent
penalties, while the other two decks had
bigger, less frequent penalties. Some of the
subjects were asked to participate before
lunch, while the other subjects were asked to
participate after lunch.

Results
An Analysis of Lunch on Profit Earned
500

399.4

400

300

Profit Earned

200

175.6
112.1

100

-100

-64.3
Before Lunch: First Trial

Before Lunch: Second Trial

After Lunch: First Trial

After Lunch: Second Trial

Results Cont.
An Analysis of Lunch on Profit Earned
350

300

250

200

Profit Earned
150

287.5

100

50

23.9
Before Lunch: Average Of Both Trials

After Lunch: Average of Both Trials

Conclusion
People who participated in the experiment
after eating lunch had a higher positive net
profit compared to the people who
participated before eating lunch. However,
due to the error bars for each trial because
of the limited amount of participants, these
results are not necessarily significant.

Future Research
There are several points where this project could be improved upon:
Regulating a specific amount of food to be consumed prior to the
experiment.
Controlling the amount of time between a participants consumption
of lunch and his or her participation in my experiment.
Conducting a survey after taking part in my experiment, which would
list factors of how the participants felt after eating lunch (full or not
full).
Increasing the number of trials taken per person (at least up to 3) in
order to measure the amount of improvement in the experiment over
time.
Seeking out a larger number of participants.

References
de Ridder, D., Kroese, F., Adriaanse, M., & Evers, C.
(2014). Always Gamble on an Empty Stomach: Hunger
Is Associated with Advantageous Decision Making.PloS
one,9(10), e111081.