The art of dieting: Exposure to thin sculptures effortlessly reduces the intake of unhealthy food in motivated eaters

Thin, human-like sculptures by the artist Alberto Giacometti, applied as environmental cues, have been found to facilitate dieting by reducing chocolate intake and promoting healthy snack choices. However, the processes underlying this “Giacometti effect” have been left unexplored so far. The present study therefore first examines the effortlessness of the effect. More specifically, it aims to determine whether the sculptures reduce unhealthy food intake when only few cognitive resources for their influence are available. For this purpose, the participants in a chip tasting were given the cognitive load task of memorizing either 10 or two digits during the tasting. The results indicate that the sculptures reduced participants’ chip intake independent of the cognitive load. Thus, they influenced participants’ eating behavior even when only few cognitive resources were available. The results also indicate that the sculptures reduced chip intake only when the participants liked the chips. The sculptures could thus exert their influence when individuals were motivated to eat and the dieting cues were useful. The finding that the Giacometti sculptures, applied as environmental dieting or health cues, influenced individuals when only few cognitive resources were available, could indicate a crucial advantage for the application of these cues in complex, real-world settings.

[Molecular analyses for (early) recognition of hematologic diseases - sense and sensibility for molecular analysis: the art of intelligent decision-making]

During the last 10 years several molecular markers have been established as useful tools among the armamentarium of a hematologist. As a consequence, the number of performed hematologic molecular analyses has immensely increased. Often, such tests replace or complement other laboratory methods. Molecular markers can be useful in many ways: they can serve for diagnostics, describe the prognostic profile, predict which types of drugs are indicated, and can be used for the therapeutic monitoring of the patient to indicate an adequate response or predict resistance or relapse of the disease. Many markers fulfill more than one of these aspects. Most important, however, is the right choice of analyses at the right time-points!