„Stand your ground!” Defending oneself against cue-induced food craving in the context of the Sword-and-Shield-Hypothesis of embodiment

Embodiment techniques implicitly influence behavior. Summarized within the Sword-and-Shield-hypothesis, hand movements and contractions can affect approach and avoidance motivation. Thus, they could offer a way to influence food craving as a motivational approach tendency. Two experimental studies (N = 121; N = 63) tested whether an implicit modulation of right (approach) and left (avoidance) motor activity (via squeezing a relaxation ball) influences food cue-induced food craving in right-handed women. Study 1 showed that left motor activity (avoidance) lead to less induced food craving compared to a group with right motor activity (approach). There was a significant interaction effect (F(1, 119) = 6.66, p = .011, η_p² = .053), showing a trend towards suppressed food craving in the group with left motor activity compared to the group with right motor activity. Study 2, with an improved experimental design, also showed less induced food craving in the group with left motor activity (avoidance) compared to right and to no motor activity (F(3.40, 102.09) = 3.15, p = .023, η_p² = .095). These results indicate that avoidance-related embodiment effects according to the Sword-and-Shield-Hypothesis may implicitly influence cue-induced food craving and that particularly left motor activity can buffer food craving in right-handed women as a potentially helpful application for everyday use. However, applicability in field settings and among people with disturbed eating behaviors are areas for future research.