--- title: Diets: You Eat More When You Watch Action Movies, Study Finds description: Researchers observe that people watching an action flick eat almost twice as much as people watching a talk show canonical: https://time.com/3252109/tv-snacks-action-movies-talk-show-health-diet/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-02T05:20:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T05:38:33.000Z article:section: Health og:title: Watching Action Movies Makes You Eat More og:description: Almost twice as much as when you're watching a talk show, in fact og:url: https://time.com/3252109/tv-snacks-action-movies-talk-show-health-diet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt654784dfae3758e5/69869e92cd68480ab7095f2c/guardians-of-the-galaxy-movie-trends.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, from left: Dave Bautista, Chris Pratt, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watching Action Movies Makes You Eat More twitter:description: Almost twice as much as when you're watching a talk show, in fact twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt654784dfae3758e5/69869e92cd68480ab7095f2c/guardians-of-the-galaxy-movie-trends.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Study Shows That You Eat Way More When Watching Action Movies by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## Rishi Iyengar Updated: Dec 14, 2023 5:38 AM UTCPublished: Sep 2, 2014 5:20 AM UTC  Dave Bautista and Chris Pratt in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Dave Bautista and Chris Pratt in Marvel's Guardians of the GalaxyDisney by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## Rishi Iyengar Updated: Dec 14, 2023 5:38 AM UTCPublished: Sep 2, 2014 5:20 AM UTC **Editor’s Note**: _The study upon which this story is based has been retracted by_ JAMA Internal Medicine_, the journal in which it was published. JAMA has also retracted several other studies by the same researcher. “Cornell University has notified JAMA that based on its investigation they are unable to provide assurances regarding the scientific validity of the six studies,” JAMA said in a_ [_statement_](https://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/jama-network-retracts-6-articles-that-included-dr-brian-wansink-as-author/)_. “Therefore, the six articles reporting the results of these studies … are hereby retracted.”_ It’s not watching what you eat, it’s what you watch when you eat if [a study released Monday](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/watching-action-movies-could-make-you-overeat-study-says/) is to be believed. CBS News reports that the study, published in the _Journal of the American Medical Association: Internal Medicine_, found that the amount of food people consumed while viewing television was determined by the type of content they were exposed to — people watching an action flick ate almost twice as much as people watching a talk show. The researchers randomly divided 94 undergraduate students into three groups, each of which was put in front of a TV for 20 minutes. One group was made to watch a part of the Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson thriller _The Island_, while the second watched the same portion of the same film on mute. The final group watched a 20-minute clip of the interview program _Charlie Rose_. All three sets of participants were given M&Ms and cookies, as well as healthier snacks like carrots and grapes, to enjoy while watching TV. Researchers weighed the snacks before viewing, and how much was left afterward. While the people watching the interview show ate 104.3 g of food, CBS says, those who watched the clip of _The Island_ consumed a total of 206.5 g — nearly twice the amount. Watching _The Island_ on mute did diminish appetites, but at 142.1 g the amount consumed was still 36% more than that of the _Charlie Rose_ group. The total calorie intake of both groups watching the action clip was also higher, at 354 calories with sound and 314 without, compared with just 215 calories for the third group. Study author Aner Tal, a postdoctoral research associate at Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab, said that stimulating, fast-paced programs with a lot of camera cuts drew viewers in and distracted them from what they were eating. “They can make you eat more because you’re paying less attention to how much you are putting in your mouth,” Tal said. The researchers suggested measures like bringing predetermined, finite quantities of food to the TV to avoid overeating, while the study’s co-author Brian Wansink, professor and director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, offered a silver lining. “Action-movie watchers also eat more healthy foods, if that’s what’s in front of them,” he said, suggesting that this could be turned to a viewer’s advantage. \[[_CBS News_](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/watching-action-movies-could-make-you-overeat-study-says/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3252109/tv-snacks-action-movies-talk-show-health-diet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3252109/tv-snacks-action-movies-talk-show-health-diet/"},"headline":"A Study Shows That You Eat Way More When Watching Action Movies","datePublished":"2014-09-02T05:20:31.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-14T05:38:33.000Z","description":"Almost twice as much as when you're watching a talk show, in fact","url":"https://time.com/3252109/tv-snacks-action-movies-talk-show-health-diet/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","TV","Healthy Eating"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt654784dfae3758e5/69869e92cd68480ab7095f2c/guardians-of-the-galaxy-movie-trends.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt654784dfae3758e5/69869e92cd68480ab7095f2c/guardians-of-the-galaxy-movie-trends.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, from left: Dave Bautista, Chris Pratt, 2014.","caption":"GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, from left: Dave Bautista, Chris Pratt, 2014.","creditText":"Disney","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3252109/tv-snacks-action-movies-talk-show-health-diet/","name":"A Study Shows That You Eat Way More When Watching Action Movies"}}]}] ```