Cited by 703Eating Disorders and BehaviorsNutrition, Health and Food BehaviorRegulation of Appetite and Obesity

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 233 of the 233 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Food cue reactivity and craving predict eating and weight gain: A meta-analytic review

Open access
Boswell, Rebecca G., Kober, Hedy·2016·Obesity Reviews

Abstract

Summary: According to learning‐based models of behavior, food cue reactivity and craving are conditioned responses that lead to increased eating and subsequent weight gain. However, evidence supporting this relationship has been mixed. We conducted a quantitative meta‐analysis to assess the predictive effects of food cue reactivity and craving on eating and weight‐related outcomes. Across 69 reported statistics from 45 published reports representing 3,292 participants, we found an overall medium effect of food cue reactivity and craving on outcomes (r = 0.33, p < 0.001; approximately 11% of variance), suggesting that cue exposure and the experience of craving significantly influence and contribute to eating behavior and weight gain. Follow‐up tests revealed a medium effect size for the effect of both tonic and cue‐induced craving on eating behavior (r = 0.33). We did not find significant differences in effect sizes based on body mass index, age, or dietary restraint. However, we did find that visual food cues (e.g. pictures and videos) were associated with a similar effect size to real food exposure and a stronger effect size than olfactory cues. Overall, the present findings suggest that food cue reactivity, cue‐induced craving and tonic craving systematically and prospectively predict food‐related outcomes. These results have theoretical, methodological, public health and clinical implications.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/obr.12354

Cites

233 of 233 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 233 references

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Polivy J, 2014, Managing and Preventing Obesity: Behavioral Factors and Dietary Interventions
  2. 10.1037/0022-006X.70.3.510 · DOI
  3. Martin CK, 2011, Food Cravings: A Central Construct in Food Intake Behavior, Weight Loss, and the Neurobiology of Appetitive Behavior, 741
  4. Brownell KD, 2000, The LEARN Program for Weight Management
  5. 10.1073/pnas.0807423106 · DOI · Paper page

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 201–300 of 702

Metadata

Authors
Boswell, R. G., & Kober, H.
Affiliations
  • Yale University (US)
  • Department of Psychology Yale University New Haven CT USA
Venue
Obesity Reviews
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2015-12-08
Volume
17
Issue
2
Pages
159-177
ISSN
  • 1467-7881 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-789X
OpenAlex
W2192006161
Cited by
703
References
233
Citations by year
2026: 63 · 2025: 63 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 78 · 2022: 97 · 2021: 71 · 2020: 81 · 2019: 86 · 2018: 49 · 2017: 47 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 1
FWCI
5.64
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Obesity Reviews (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute on Drug Abuse (P50DA009241, K12 DA00167, P50-DA-0-9241, K12DA000167)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Regulation of Appetite and Obesity
Keywords
food cue reactivity, food cravings, cue-induced craving, dietary habits, weight gain, visual food cues, olfactory cues, dietary restraint, body mass index
MeSH terms
Bulimia, Cues, Feeding Behavior, Food, Humans, Impulsive Behavior, Obesity, Weight Gain, Behavior, Addictive, Evidence-Based Practice, Craving

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review