Next time you eat at your favorite fast-food joint or dine at a fancy restaurant somewhere, it might be best to order through a machine rather than by saying your order out loud. A new study shows ordering through a machine is healthier than letting your mouth do the choosing.
Actions Are Healthier Than Words
According to a study cited on Live Science, people who order their food online or use their hands to choose from a digital menu tend to choose healthier meals than those who tell the waiter what they want. Researchers explained that when people talk, they activate parts of their brain responsible for emotion. Hence, their decisions become more impulse-based rather than cognitive-based.
"The way people express decisions activates different regions of the brain and may influence the extent to which emotions rather than cognitions determine a decision," read the researchers' official press release. "We speculate that speaking may elicit greater impulsiveness and less reflection than manual expression."
Speakers Favor Higher-Calorie Meals
In one experiment, researchers found that people who ordered food out loud were more likely to choose higher-calorie meals. Those same people preferred a chocolate-drenched dessert over a fruity one.
Another experiment showed that students who used a vending machine that had a microphone picked higher-calorie snacks than those who used a vending machine that had a digital menu.
Researchers also asked students to pick between a banana or a chocolate bar. When students used a button to make their pick, 35 percent chose the chocolate bar. By comparison, 62 percent chose the chocolate bar when they had to utter their preferred snack.
"Our findings could have important implications for those who do business in person, say through a retail store, or remotely via website," the researchers concluded. "For instance, some restaurants now give diners electronic tablets in place of menus, which may encourage them to opt for different (healthier) dishes simply because they make decisions manually rather than verbally."
