Dietary Decision Task
A three-phase, educational adaptation of the Hare et al. (2009) food-choice paradigm: rate foods for healthiness and tastiness, then decide food by food whether you want to eat each one. Your session summary includes a descriptive self-control index — an educational demonstration, not an assessment.
Three phases: health ratings, taste ratings, then a Yes/No choice for each food. The session is self-paced and takes roughly 8–12 minutes.
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About the Dietary Decision Task
This task is an educational, browser-based adaptation of the food-choice paradigm introduced by Hare, Camerer, and Rangel (2009). You first rate foods for healthiness, then for tastiness, and finally decide food by food whether you want to eat each one. Combining your own ratings with your choices lets the task identify your personal conflict foods — foods that are tasty for you but not healthy, or healthy but not tasty — and summarize what you did with them.
Scientific Background
In the original research, participants rated 50 foods for health and taste and then made choices about eating them, while fMRI tracked activity in brain systems related to value and self-control. At the population level, how people handled tasty-but-unhealthy foods was linked to differences in self-regulation and body weight. This version is a simplified demonstration: no brain imaging, no calorie labels, no real food or incentives, and a fixed set of 40 common foods. Group-level findings from the laboratory do not describe any single person's session here.
What Is Measured
Conflict foods are defined from your own ratings: a food you rate tasty (4–5) but not healthy (1–2) is “tasty-but-unhealthy”; a food you rate healthy (4–5) but not tasty (1–2) is “healthy-but-not-tasty”. The Self-Control Index is the percentage of your tasty-but-unhealthy foods that you declined in the choice phase. A secondary figure is the acceptance rate for healthy-but-not-tasty foods. If your ratings produce fewer than 3 conflict foods, the index shows “—” and the summary stays descriptive.
Interpreting Your Results
The Self-Control Index counts how often you declined foods that you yourself rated as tasty but not healthy. It is descriptive and session-specific: one short set of choices cannot measure your overall self-control, predict your eating behavior, or be compared with research cutoffs. Treat it as a prompt for reflection, not a verdict — it says nothing about your body, your health, or your character.
References
- Hare, T. A., Camerer, C. F., & Rangel, A. (2009). Self-control in decision-making involves modulation of the vmPFC valuation system. Science, 324(5927), 646-648. 10.1126/science.1168450
- Sullivan, N. J., Hutcherson, C. A., Harris, A., & Rangel, A. (2015). Dietary self-control is related to the speed with which attributes of healthfulness and tastiness are processed. Psychological Science, 26(2), 122-134. 10.1177/0956797614559543
- Hare, T. A., Malmaud, J., & Rangel, A. (2011). Focusing attention on the health aspects of foods changes value signals in vmPFC and improves dietary choice. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(30), 11077-11087. 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6383-10.2011
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Frequently Asked Questions
Have another question? Let us know.
What does the Self-Control Index measure?
It is the share of your personal conflict foods — foods you rated tasty (4–5) but not healthy (1–2) — that you declined in the choice phase. It summarizes one short session descriptively. It is not a measure of your general willpower and not a clinical score.
Why didn't I get a Self-Control Index?
The index needs at least 3 conflict foods from your own ratings. Many people simply do not produce that many tasty-but-unhealthy (or healthy-but-not-tasty) ratings in one session. When there are fewer than 3, the result shows “—”. This is expected behavior, not an error.
How is this different from the original Hare et al. (2009) study?
The original study used fMRI, calorie labels on every food, and real food incentives in a laboratory. This adaptation keeps the health rating → taste rating → choice logic in a simplified browser form, with 40 foods and Yes/No choices, for education and self-reflection.
Is this a test of my eating behavior or willpower?
No. Real eating depends on hunger, context, culture, cost, and habit. This task isolates one narrow trade-off for a few minutes, and your results describe this session only.
What if I have a history of eating difficulties?
Please take care of yourself first. Food-choice tasks can feel distressing for some people with eating-related difficulties, and this task offers no clinical benefit that would justify pushing through discomfort. Skipping it is completely fine, and stopping midway is always okay.
About This Experiment
This experiment is an educational adaptation for demonstration purposes. It is not a clinical diagnostic tool. Results reflect your performance in this specific session and should not be interpreted as an assessment of your cognitive abilities.
Data Privacy
Your experiment data is processed and stored locally in your browser. No data is uploaded to any server unless you explicitly export it.
