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Discoveries in Agriculture and Food Sciences - Vol. 13, No. 1
Publication Date: February 25, 2025
DOI:10.14738/dafs.131.18340.
Kaya, A. Ş (2025). A Visual and Bibliometric Overview of the Hedonic Hunger Literature. Discoveries in Agriculture and Food Sciences,
13(1). 42-53.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
A Visual and Bibliometric Overview of the Hedonic Hunger
Literature
Aysel Şahin Kaya
Antalya Bilim University, Faculty of Health Sciences,
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics
ABSTRACT
Aim: This study sought to provide an overview of the hedonic hunger research
community using bibliometric data. Material and methods: The Web of Science
(WoS) Core Collection was searched for all current and highly cited hedonic hunger
research articles published in English between January 1, 1970 and July 31, 2024
for this bibliometric study. Using abstracts and full texts when necessary, the titles
that were found were evaluated for eligibility. In addition to journals, authors, and
countries of eligible articles, it was also identified keywords categories to track
publication trends. On the basis of published data, the number of citations for each
eligible article was compared to the expected number. Results: A total of 1,966
articles from various fields make up the dataset. Nutrition and dietetics (41.506%),
behavioral sciences (24.364%), and psychology (23.093%) are important fields.
Publications started in 1992 increased after 2009, reaching a peak of 178 with
9,022 citations in 2021. Contributors also include Yale University (2.95%), Oregon
Research Institute (3.001%), and Maastricht University (3.357%). The United
States (901 documents, 43,113 citations), England (302 documents, 13,226
citations), and Germany (185 documents, 7,282 citations) are the top three nations.
Conclusion: This study shows a dynamic research landscape in the area of hedonic
hunger that reflects cross-disciplinary cooperation and a worldwide perspective.
The increase in publications and citations, significant works, and active
collaborations all highlight the value of global cooperation in furthering scholarly
work.
Keyword: Bibliometric, Hedonic hunger, Publication, Web of Science, Nutrition.
INTRODUCTION
Hedonistic hunger (or hedonic hunger) is defined as an increase in appetite that occurs in the
absence of metabolic needs as a result of a desire to eat despite the lack of available foods and
an expectation of eating pleasure [1, 2]. Other defination is the term used to describe a person's
obsession with and desire to eat foods for pleasure and in the absence of physical hunger. The
emergence of hedonic hunger is significantly influenced by food stimuli [3]. Individuals develop
hedonic hunger as a result of the looks, flavor, and aroma of food, which makes them look for
enticing foods to satiate their need for pleasure [4].
Hedonistic hunger can be affected by mental processes like ideas, feelings, and motivations, as
well as by the widespread availability of appetizing foods and regular exposure to food-related
cues. Even in the absence of impending or ongoing dietary intake, this is still visible. While most
people eat when they are not homeostasically hungry, some people have a persistent obsession
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Kaya, A. Ş (2025). A Visual and Bibliometric Overview of the Hedonic Hunger Literature. Discoveries in Agriculture and Food Sciences, 13(1). 42-53.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/dafs.131.18340
with palatable food that is known as hedonic hunger [3-5]. The consumption of food is now
influenced by environmental nutritional cues as well as physiological needs. The abundance of
low-cost, delicious, and energy-dense food in today's society encourages people to consume
these items not only to meet their nutritional needs but also to relieve stress, enjoy themselves,
or control overbearing desires [6, 7]. Because hedonic and homeostatic structures interact with
one another to regulate body weight, much of this interaction goes unnoticed, making it
challenging to restrict oneself in a world where there is an abundance of food. This complexity
also extends to the mechanisms used to treat and/or prevent obesity. Some people are much
more sensitive to environmental food cues than others, even though many people have
experienced hedonic hunger. It has been demonstrated that a person's sensitivity can vary
depending on their gender, level of physical activity, dietary preferences, and food cravings. This
study is the first to demonstrate how impulsivity and self-esteem, psychological variables not
previously seen in published studies, also affect motivation for food intake and hedonic hunger.
Foods that are overly appetizing and have cultural norms that make them "psychologically
accessible" are abundant in the environment [6]. Also, social media and virtual platforms,
whose use has grown significantly in recent years, cause hedonic hunger because of the visual
stimuli they provide [8].
In order to measure hedonic hunger quantitatively, the Power of Food Scale (PFS) was created
in 2009. Since then, the PFS has been used in over 50 published studies to forecast outcomes
related to appetite, including neural, cognitive, behavioral, anthropometric, and clinical
measurements [3].
In order to objectively analyze all knowledge, bibliometrics, a mathematical and statistical tool,
has been used to evaluate trends in distributions, collaboration, citation, keywords, hotspots,
and frontiers [9, 10].
Hedonic hunger research is an intriguing subject of study in the field of nutritional and
psychological studies. This fascinating topic explores the complex interrelationships between
rewards, pleasure, and food consumption. The prevention of obesity, the treatment of eating
disorders, and the encouragement of improved eating habits all benefit greatly from
understanding the mechanisms that underlie hedonic hunger. The depths of hedonic hunger
study are explored in this article, along with its significance, major discoveries, and possible
implementations [1-8]. But no similar bibliometric research published on hedonic hunger. The
goal of this study is to assess the state of hedonic hunger research through July 31, 2023, and to
provide a summary of highly cited papers that have significantly advanced the field.
Researchers' work will be better positioned as a result.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Data Collection
The data source for this investigation was chosen to be Web of Science core collection (WoSCC).
Many academics have recognized WoSCC as the best database for literature analysis since it is a
top-notch digital literature resource [11]. On August 8, 2023, each article was retrieved from
every index in the WoSCC database. To avoid any prejudice brought on by database upgrades,
the search was finished that day. A thorough search was done using pertinent keywords
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Discoveries in Agriculture and Food Sciences (DAFS) Vol 13, Issue 1, February- 2025
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
including in the Topic of the search engine:"hedonic hunger", OR "pleasure-driven eating," OR
"food reward,", OR" Hedonistic hunger" OR "hedonic eating", and related words on a major
academic database (WoSCC) to conduct this bibliometric study. Articles that had been published
as of July 31, 2023 were excluded from the search. After that, bibliometric approaches were
used to examine the generated dataset.
The categories of publications were restricted to "articles" in order to assure the
representativeness of the included studies. There was language restriction as only English. The
"full records and cited references," which were downloaded and saved in plain text document
format, comprised the content of the literature records.
In this study, the distribution of publications and citations over the years, the most publishing
institutions, countries and collaborations between countries/institutions, and the most
important keywords were investigated. This study also analyzed the top 5 most cited papers on
hedonic hunger.
Search Criteria
Results for hedonistic hunger, food reward, pleasure-driven eating, and hedonic hunger
combined 13,099 entries in the Web of Science Core Collection. The diversity of findings
indicates a rising interest in and study effort to comprehend the subtleties of these ideas and
their ramifications in a variety of disciplines, including psychology, neurology, and nutrition. To
be specific, we solely looked at articles in the area of nutrition for this study. The Citation Topics
Meso section's subtopic 1.44 Nutrition & Dietetics was chosen as a result. Since it was desired
to concentrate only on articles among these, the type of publication was narrowed down to
articles. Finally, 1966 research articles constituted the sample of the study. The data set of these
publications in plain text format was downloaded to the computer and analysed with
VOSviewer bibliometric tool.
Bibliometric and Statistics Analyses
Nees Jan van Eck and colleagues created VOSviewer, which is mostly used for bibliometric
network graph research (20). Visual studies of country distribution, institution distribution,
international collaborations, and keyword analyses were performed using VOSviewer 1.6.19.
The grouping was carried out automatically using the similarity matrix and VOS mapping
approach, and the authors inserted the necessary labels based on the content. Bibliometric
method used in similar bibliometric studies (21-26). Advanced statistical analysis was not used.
data were given as percentages and frequencies. The Web of Science graphics were also used.
Ethical Consideration
Since all of the raw data used in this investigation came from public databases, no ethical
assessment was necessary.
RESULTS
Main Information
A total of 1,966 articles across research fields are included in the data that is being made
available. It is noteworthy that Nutrition Dietetics has the most representation among 61