Craving what you imagine: How sensory mental imagery relates to trait food craving and BMI.

Mental imagery (MI), particularly visual imagery, is thought to play a key role in inducing food cravings, yet its relationship with trait food craving and adiposity remains underexplored. This study investigated how MI for multiple senses is related to the individual food craving trait and BMI. Experiment 1, conducted with a cohort of 291 individuals, used a partial Plymouth Sensory Imagery Questionnaire (PSI-Q) and the Food Craving Inventory. Experiment 2 expanded on this with a large sample (n = 1371) collected across NZ, the United Kingdom, and the United States, incorporating a full PSI-Q with an additional food dimension, the Spontaneous Use of Imagery Scale, as well as the Food Craving Questionnaire-Trait. Across both studies, weak positive correlations emerged between the vividness of olfactory MI scores and trait food craving. In Experiment 2, the vividness scores associated with Smell, Taste, Food, Sensation, and Feel were weakly correlated with the trait food craving measure. Interestingly, an individual's spontaneous use of visual MI, measured with the Spontaneous Use of Imagery Scale, was indirectly linked to BMI, mediated by an individual's food craving trait. These findings provide novel insights into the role of sensory MI in habitual food cravings and adiposity, while at the same time highlighting methodological gaps in current approaches to measuring individual sensory MI.