Esther K Papies
Biographic Data
| ID | 4058474 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Esther K Papies |
| GIVEN NAMES | Esther K |
| FAMILY NAME | Papies |
| SIGNATURE | PAPIES E K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Glasgow |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8460-675X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 65 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 287 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 65 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Plant-based diets among young women in Scotland
Moving towards more plant-based diets is a win-win for both human and planetary health. However, for successful adoption, such diets must be realistic and convenient. This study explored the factors influencing food choices among young women in Scotland and examined how they interpret and use plant-based and convenience food in their daily lives. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 women aged 18-24 and generated six themes using refle…
Polarizing Plates
In two pre-registered experiments, we assessed how people cognitively represent meat and plant-based foods, to examine processes underlying dietary polarization in society. Food descriptions from U.K.-based omnivores ( N Exp. 1 = 109; N Exp. 2 = 436) and vegans ( N Exp. 1 = 111; N Exp. 2 = 407) were coded for features about consumption and reward (e.g., “rich,” “indulgent,” and “treat”) or features independent of the consumption situation (e.g., …
Sustainability in food-based dietary guidelines
I can't compromise the quality of my life I'm sorry”
Changing high‐carbon lifestyles of individuals with high socioeconomic status (SES) is an important step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring social justice within climate change mitigation. However, shifting high‐carbon lifestyles may present a challenge, especially when many high‐carbon behaviours (such as frequent flying and car ownership) are used to signal status within individuals' social networks. Here, we report the findi…
Plant-based diets among young women in Scotland
We are what ‘we’ eat
Coming to terms with climate change
Climate change is a major threat to global health. Its effects on physical health are increasingly recognised, but mental health impacts have received less attention. The mental health effects of climate change can be direct (resulting from personal exposure to acute and chronic climatic changes), indirect (via the impact on various socioeconomic, political and environmental determinants of mental health) and overarching (via knowledge, education…
No agency and responsibility for the privileged? Perceptions of climate action among high socioeconomic status citizens in the United Kingdom
Addressing climate change requires significant individual behaviour change, as well as deep societal transformations to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Individuals with high socioeconomic status (SES; i.e., with relatively higher levels of wealth, income, and education) have an important part to play to deliver these changes. This is because they often have carbon-intense consumer lifestyles, but they also have increased power to ad…
How consumption and reward features affect desire for food, consumption intentions, and behaviour
Understanding the mechanisms that underlie desire and intentions may assist in the search for strategies to promote the selection and consumption of more sustainable and healthier products. Therefore, we conducted two experiments to examine how cognitive representations influence desire and intentions for various savoury dishes. In Experiment 1, 1000 participants were allocated to one of five conditions, listing either the typical, sensory, conte…
Describing the Consumption Experience to Increase the Appeal of Plant-Based Foods
To stand out or to conform
What factors hinder the reduction of meat and/or dairy intake? In this study, we explored the perceived barriers that meat and/or dairy reducers experienced when shifting their diets. We particularly focused on how meat and/or dairy reducers were affected by their beliefs about how omnivores stereotype vegans (i.e., meta-stereotypes), as meta-stereotypes have not been previously explored in this context. Through open-ended questions in an online …
Live from the table
(Not so) sustainable guidelines
Representational shifts
These findings are consistent with research suggesting that the experience of immediate reward from drinking water underlies intake. Public health interventions should emphasize the enjoyment of drinking water, rather than the long-term health benefits
Not my kind of food’
Increased consumption despite fewer occasions
We examined the impact of a COVID-19 lockdown in England on the frequency of consumption occasions and amount of soft drinks consumed. Beverage consumption is strongly associated with specific, often social, consumption situations (e.g., going out). We reasoned that lockdown would affect consumption behaviour because it removed typical soft drink consumption situations. Specifically, we hypothesised that soft drink consumption occasions and amoun…
Can a simple plan change a complex behavior? Implementation intentions in the context of water drinking
Underhydration has significant adverse physical and mental health effects, yet many people drink too little water. Implementation intentions have been found to effectively promote many health behaviors, but little is known about the processes underlying their effects in naturalistic settings, and whether they could improve water drinking. This mixed-methods study assessed the impact and potential underlying processes of using implementation inten…
Does reward regulate habitual consumption behaviour
How do nutritional guidelines portray dietary norms around meat and dairy consumption
Food research during the climate crisis
How consumption simulations influence eating intentions and behaviour
Pleasure vs. identity
Current levels of meat consumption in Western societies are unsustainable and contribute to the climate emergency. However, most people are not reducing their intake. Here, we examine the language used on social media to describe meat and plant-based foods, since the ways people think and communicate about food could hinder the transition towards sustainable eating. In two pre-registered studies, we analysed the degree to which the language in fo…
An integrated framework for predicting the consumption frequency of alcohol, hot beverages, sugary drinks, and water
Examining the neural correlates of goal priming with the NeuroShop, a novel virtual reality fMRI paradigm
OBJECTIVE: Health goal priming has been shown to stimulate healthy food choices by activating an individual's weight-control goal. The present study combined fMRI with a novel virtual reality food choice task to elucidate the underlying neural mechanisms of health goal priming. Previous research has suggested that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) play a role in the incorporation of health consi…
The influence of Covid-19 lockdown in the UK on the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and water
Pleasure in the mind
The allure of forbidden food
Healthy dining. Subtle diet reminders at the point of purchase increase low-calorie food choices among both chronic and current dieters
The portion size effect on food intake. An anchoring and adjustment process
Differentiating between successful and unsuccessful dieters. Validity and reliability of the Perceived Self-Regulatory Success in Dieting Scale
Dieting and the wish to lose weight are ubiquitous in our society. Only few people, however, are successful in long-term weight loss and -maintenance. The Perceived Self-Regulatory Success in Dieting Scale (PSRS) is a succinct 3-item measure that can be used to differentiate between successful and unsuccessful dieters. However, psychometric properties of the scale have not yet been investigated. We re-analyzed data from several studies and demons…
Implementation intentions as goal primes
People often forget their long‐term strivings because their environment confronts them with attractive temptations. Previous research suggests that self‐control failures can be prevented by reminding people of their higher‐order goal. Therefore, we hypothesized that using implementation intentions as a tool to directly re‐activate people's higher‐order goal in tempting situations would effectively enhance self‐control. We tested this in the domai…
The benefits of simply observing
Mindful attention, a central component of mindfulness meditation, can be conceived as becoming aware of one's thoughts and experiences and being able to observe them as transient mental events. Here, we present a series of studies demonstrating the effects of applying this metacognitive perspective to one's spontaneous reward responses when encountering attractive stimuli. Taking a grounded cognition perspective, we argue that reward simulations …
A brief mindfulness intervention reduces unhealthy eating when hungry, but not the portion size effect
Eat it or beat it. The differential effects of food temptations on overweight and normal-weight restrained eaters
Turning a blind eye to temptation
The present research shows in 4 studies that cognitive load can reduce the impact of temptations on cognition and behavior and, thus, challenges the proposition that distraction always hampers self-regulation. Participants performed different speeded categorization tasks with pictures of attractive and neutral food items (Studies 1-3) and attractive and unattractive female faces (Study 4), while we assessed their reaction times as an indicator of…
Who likes it more? Restrained eaters’ implicit attitudes towards food
Using consumption and reward simulations to increase the appeal of plant-based foods
Studying human eating behaviour in the laboratory
Eating less from bigger packs
Situating desire
Alcohol representations are socially situated
Planning is for doing
Preventing the pack size effect
Pleasure vs. identity
Current levels of meat consumption in Western societies are unsustainable and contribute to the climate emergency. However, most people are not reducing their intake. Here, we examine the language used on social media to describe meat and plant-based foods, since the ways people think and communicate about food could hinder the transition towards sustainable eating. In two pre-registered studies, we analysed the degree to which the language in fo…
No agency and responsibility for the privileged? Perceptions of climate action among high socioeconomic status citizens in the United Kingdom
Addressing climate change requires significant individual behaviour change, as well as deep societal transformations to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Individuals with high socioeconomic status (SES; i.e., with relatively higher levels of wealth, income, and education) have an important part to play to deliver these changes. This is because they often have carbon-intense consumer lifestyles, but they also have increased power to ad…
I know it's just pouring it from the tap, but it's not easy”
Can a simple plan change a complex behavior? Implementation intentions in the context of water drinking
Underhydration has significant adverse physical and mental health effects, yet many people drink too little water. Implementation intentions have been found to effectively promote many health behaviors, but little is known about the processes underlying their effects in naturalistic settings, and whether they could improve water drinking. This mixed-methods study assessed the impact and potential underlying processes of using implementation inten…
Lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher intended consumption from oversized portions of unhealthy food
Coming to terms with climate change
Climate change is a major threat to global health. Its effects on physical health are increasingly recognised, but mental health impacts have received less attention. The mental health effects of climate change can be direct (resulting from personal exposure to acute and chronic climatic changes), indirect (via the impact on various socioeconomic, political and environmental determinants of mental health) and overarching (via knowledge, education…
How consumption and reward features affect desire for food, consumption intentions, and behaviour
Understanding the mechanisms that underlie desire and intentions may assist in the search for strategies to promote the selection and consumption of more sustainable and healthier products. Therefore, we conducted two experiments to examine how cognitive representations influence desire and intentions for various savoury dishes. In Experiment 1, 1000 participants were allocated to one of five conditions, listing either the typical, sensory, conte…
Pleasure in the mind
Understanding dieting
The present paper introduces a novel approach to understanding failures of self-regulation in chronic dieters. Traditional approaches to this problem have focused on consciously controlled processes of eating regulation, such as the realisation that one has overeaten, or the experience of food cravings. We argue, however, that dieters' problem might rather lie in their sensitivity to the hedonic aspects of food and the resulting inhibition of the…
The allure of forbidden food
Who likes it more? Restrained eaters’ implicit attitudes towards food
Planning is for doing
Goal priming and eating behavior
OBJECTIVE: Several lines of research have shown that the confrontation with attractive food can trigger overeating, especially in restrained eaters. This effect may be driven by a hedonic orientation toward food which temporarily overrules the goal of dieting in the regulation of behavior. The present study was designed to provide an experimental demonstration of this effect in a naturalistic setting, and to show that reactivating the goal of die…
Eat it or beat it. The differential effects of food temptations on overweight and normal-weight restrained eaters
Implementation intentions as goal primes
People often forget their long‐term strivings because their environment confronts them with attractive temptations. Previous research suggests that self‐control failures can be prevented by reminding people of their higher‐order goal. Therefore, we hypothesized that using implementation intentions as a tool to directly re‐activate people's higher‐order goal in tempting situations would effectively enhance self‐control. We tested this in the domai…
Mindful Attention Prevents Mindless Impulses
Three studies illustrate that mindful attention prevents impulses toward attractive food. Participants received a brief mindfulness procedure in which they observed their reactions to external stimuli as transient mental events rather than subjectively real experiences. Participants then applied this procedure to viewing pictures of highly attractive and neutral food items. Finally, reactions to food stimuli were assessed with an implicit approac…
Perceiving an exclusive cause of affect prevents misattribution
Differentiating between successful and unsuccessful dieters. Validity and reliability of the Perceived Self-Regulatory Success in Dieting Scale
Dieting and the wish to lose weight are ubiquitous in our society. Only few people, however, are successful in long-term weight loss and -maintenance. The Perceived Self-Regulatory Success in Dieting Scale (PSRS) is a succinct 3-item measure that can be used to differentiate between successful and unsuccessful dieters. However, psychometric properties of the scale have not yet been investigated. We re-analyzed data from several studies and demons…
Why most dieters fail but some succeed
Theories of eating regulation often attribute overweight to a malfunction of homeostatic regulation of body weight. With the goal conflict model of eating, we present a new perspective that attributes the difficulty of chronic dieters (i.e., restrained eaters) in regulating their food intake to a conflict between 2 incompatible goals-namely, eating enjoyment and weight control. This model explains the findings of previous research and provides no…
Healthy dining. Subtle diet reminders at the point of purchase increase low-calorie food choices among both chronic and current dieters
Turning a blind eye to temptation
The present research shows in 4 studies that cognitive load can reduce the impact of temptations on cognition and behavior and, thus, challenges the proposition that distraction always hampers self-regulation. Participants performed different speeded categorization tasks with pictures of attractive and neutral food items (Studies 1-3) and attractive and unattractive female faces (Study 4), while we assessed their reaction times as an indicator of…
A brief mindfulness intervention reduces unhealthy eating when hungry, but not the portion size effect
The portion size effect on food intake. An anchoring and adjustment process
Preventing the pack size effect
The benefits of simply observing
Mindful attention, a central component of mindfulness meditation, can be conceived as becoming aware of one's thoughts and experiences and being able to observe them as transient mental events. Here, we present a series of studies demonstrating the effects of applying this metacognitive perspective to one's spontaneous reward responses when encountering attractive stimuli. Taking a grounded cognition perspective, we argue that reward simulations …
Health goal priming
Eating less from bigger packs
The effect of a serving size recommendation on the amount of snack food served and on the magnitude of the pack size effect
Goal-directed visual attention drives health goal priming
The decentering component of mindfulness reduces appetitive responses to unhealthy foods
Material deprivation moderates the portion-size effect on intended food consumption
Alcohol representations are socially situated
Psychology (58 works) · Social Psychology (31 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (30 works) · Medicine (29 works) · Cognitive psychology (22 works) · Eating Disorders and Behaviors (20 works) · Developmental psychology (19 works) · Cognition (13 works) · Environmental health (13 works) · Food Science (13 works)