Fast food is not only bad for your body, but may also harm your bank account. Eating habits have shifted dramatically over the last few decades--fast food has become a multibillion dollar industry that has widespread influence on what and how we eat. The original idea behind fast food is to increase efficiency, allowing people to quickly finish a meal so they can move on to other matters. Researchers at the Rotman School of Management, however, have found that the mere1（仅仅的） exposure to fast food and related symbols can make people impatient, increasing preference for time saving products, and reducing willingness to save.
"Fast food represents a culture of time efficiency and instant gratification（满意，喜悦） ," says Chen-Bo Zhong, who co-wrote the paper with colleague Sanford DeVoe to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science. "The problem is that the goal of saving time gets activated2 upon exposure to fast food regardless of whether time is a relevant（有关的，中肯的） factor in the context. For example, walking faster is time efficient when one is trying to make a meeting, but it's a sign of impatience3 when one is going for a stroll（闲逛，漫步） in the park. We're finding that the mere exposure to fast food is promoting a general sense of haste and impatience regardless of the context."
In one experiment, the researchers flashed fast food symbols, such as the golden arch of McDonald's, on a computer screen for a few milliseconds, so quick that participants couldn't consciously identify what they saw. They found that this unconscious exposure increased participants' reading speed in a subsequent（后来的，随后的） task compared to those in a control condition, even when there was no advantage to finishing sooner. In another study, participants who recalled a time when they eat at a food restaurant subsequently preferred time-saving products—such as two-in-one shampoo—over regular products. A final experiment found people exposed to fast food logos exhibited greater reluctance（勉强，不情愿） for saving —choose a smaller immediate4 payment rather than opting5 for（选择） a much larger delayed payment.
"Fast food is one of many technologies that allow us to save time," says Sanford DeVoe, "But the ironic6 thing is that by constantly reminding us of time efficiency, these technologies can lead us to feel much more impatience. A fast food culture that extols（颂扬，赞美） saving time doesn't just change the way we eat but it can also fundamentally alter the way they experience our time. For example, leisure（空闲的，业余的） activities that are supposed to be relaxing can come to be experienced through the color glasses of impatience."
The researchers point out that it's impossible to know whether fast food in part caused the value for time efficiency（时间效率） in our culture or is merely a consequence of it—but it's clear from their findings that exposure to fast food reinforces（加强，补充） an emphasis on impatience and instant gratification（满意，喜悦） . "Given the role that financial impatience played in the current economic crisis," says Chen-Bo Zhong, "we need to move beyond counting calories when we examine the consequences of fast food as it is also influencing our everyday psychology7 and behavior in a wider set of domains8 than has been previously9 thought."
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