This paper investigates the effect of nocebo suggestions on food craving levels and explores whether personality traits, specifically neuroticism and impulsivity, moderate this impact. The study...Show moreThis paper investigates the effect of nocebo suggestions on food craving levels and explores whether personality traits, specifically neuroticism and impulsivity, moderate this impact. The study was conducted using a sample of 21 volunteers which were recruited from Leiden University, and used a randomised controlled trial design. The two groups that were used in the analysis were control and nocebo groups (increase hunger). Nocebo group participants received a sham vagus nerve stimulation and were exposed to suggestions that this stimulation will increase their hunger. Food craving was measured using a Visual Analogue Scale at different time points throughout the experiment, and self-report inventories were used to assess neuroticism and impulsivity. A repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and a moderation analysis were performed to analyse the data. The results showed significant changes in craving intensity, F(3, 57) = 11.14, p < .001, with higher craving levels in the control group compared to the nocebo group. Neither neuroticism F(3, 17) = 0.37, p = .77, nor impulsivity, F(3, 17) = 2.11, p = .14, were significant in moderating the relationship between nocebo suggestions and food cravings. However, impulsivity independently showed a significant negative effect on craving ratings, where higher impulsivity was related to lower food cravings, b = -11.07, t(df) = -2.18, p = .04. The study’s limitations included a small sample size and ambiguous definitions of nocebo effects, which could have affected the results. Future research should focus on exploring other personality traits to deepen our understanding of their effect on nocebo suggestions and food cravings.Show less
Itch is an unpleasant somatic sensation which acts as a danger signal for threatening stimuli on the skin. Attentional bias is the tendency to prioritize the processing of specific types of stimuli...Show moreItch is an unpleasant somatic sensation which acts as a danger signal for threatening stimuli on the skin. Attentional bias is the tendency to prioritize the processing of specific types of stimuli over others. The mind prioritizes threat-related stimuli over neutral stimuli, therefore an attentional bias towards itch is expected. Neuroticism is an individual characteristic that might influence attentional bias towards itch and could be defined as emotional instability, resulting in the tendency to ruminate, experience negative emotions and fear. Previous studies found mixed results regarding both the presence of attentional bias towards itch, and the relation between neuroticism and attentional bias towards itch in healthy participants. Therefore, the first aim was to examine the presence of attentional bias towards itch in healthy individuals. The second aim was to identify the relationship between neuroticism and attentional bias towards itch in healthy individuals. The design of this study is a secondary analysis and used the data from seven earlier studies. The 577 included participants were all healthy individuals between 18 and 35 years old. In order to examine the presence of attentional bias towards itch, the dot-probe task with neutral vs. itch-related words and/or pictures was used. Furthermore, the neuroticism subscale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire revised short scale (EPQ-RSS) was used to measure neuroticism. A multilevel analysis showed no attentional bias towards itch-related stimuli in healthy participants, t(4.941)=-1.252, p=0.266. Furthermore, the effect of neuroticism scores was not significant, indicating that higher neuroticism scores were not associated with more attentional bias towards itch, t(382.636)=-0.825, p=0.410. The inclusion of healthy participants only, the low neuroticism scores and the absence of itch-related goals in the current study could be a reason for not finding an attentional bias towards itch and the relation with neuroticism. However, given the fact that this study is a secondary analysis with a large sample size, it also has to be considered that there simply is no attentional bias towards itch in healthy participants. This study could be used as a guideline for future research, in order to further investigate the relationship between neuroticism and attentional bias towards itch.Show less
With the rapid increase in consumption, impulse purchasing behaviour is skyrocketing, especially online. Previous research suggests that both distraction as well as personality types influence...Show moreWith the rapid increase in consumption, impulse purchasing behaviour is skyrocketing, especially online. Previous research suggests that both distraction as well as personality types influence consumption but as of yet, this relationship has not been investigated together. This research examines the moderating effects of the personality types of neuroticism and conscientiousness on the relationship between distraction and impulse purchasing behavior. Participants’ impulsivity was tested in an online shopping task under either high or low levels of distraction, which was followed by a Big-5 questionnaire testing individuals’ personality types. Results showed that while not significant, distraction increased impulse purchasing behaviour overall, as well as significantly increasing impulse purchasing for neurotic individuals. Low levels of conscientiousness were found to have significantly more of an effect on impulse purchasing compared to higher levels of conscientiousness when under high levels of distraction, however, no effect was found in the low distraction condition. These findings offer up new directions for future research.Show less
