Food for Performance

What it measures

The scale measures belief in food consumption as a performance enhancer, capturing the folk theory that eating beforehand is necessary to excel at a task. This intuition often persists even when it runs counter to health and nutrition goals, making the scale useful for research on food-related self-control.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• In order to perform well at a task, it is better to have a full stomach than an empty stomach.
• Task performance depends a lot on what one has eaten before.
• Just before performing a task at which I need to be good, I eat something up to give me strength.
• In order to perform well at a task, it is better to eat well beforehand.
• If I don’t eat enough, I cannot be good at doing a task.
• When I want to perform well at a task, I favor foods that give energy.
• Just before performing a task at which I need to be good, I prefer to eat in order to keep me going.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Cornil, Gomez, and Vasiljevic (2020) created this scale and reported it as unidimensional and reliable in an initial pretest. It was later used in both French (Pilot Study 1) and English (Study 4) versions, with alphas of .83–.84; the English version is what's shown here, with French items available in the original study's web appendix. Validity wasn't separately assessed.

Citation

Cornil, Y., Gomez, P., & Vasiljevic, D. (2020). Food as Fuel: Performance Goals Increase the Consumption of High-Calorie Foods at the Expense of Good Nutrition. Journal of Consumer Research, 47(2), 147–166.

Keywords