That crunch of piece after piece of buttery movie popcorn may not just fill you up, but it may also block the effects of that pre-movie advertising.
According to a study from the University of Cologne, the crunch and act of eating itself can block the process the brain uses to encode new information.
Researchers said that when consumers hear the name of a product, their lips and tongue simulate the pronunciation of the name, at the same time, the brain tries to say the name. When it's repeated over and over and over, it helps consumers remember that new product.
That's where popcorn comes in. During the study, some subjects were given the snack and ate it during the commercials. By eating popcorn, the mouth couldn't go through the simulation, and a week later, they didn't skew towards the products they saw in the ads. While the people in the study who were given sugar cubes instead, a snack that didn't tie up the mouth, blocking the simulation, did choose the items shown in the ads.
Click here to read the full study results.
