Visual attention toward food-item images can vary as a function of background saliency and culture: An eye-tracking study

•Background contexts (e.g., tableware items and table decoration) affected visual attention toward food images.•As background contexts became more salient, participants’ visual attention toward food images decreased.•Compared to North Americans, Chinese participants were more influenced by background contexts while viewing food images.•Culture-induced variation in visual attention toward food images was obtained for a low-saliency background context.•Culture-induced variation in visual attention was not present for medium- and high-saliency background contexts.

People often purchase food products on impulse and their visual impression of such products plays an important role in impulse buying. Consumers are also likely to buy food items based on the images as displayed on mobile devices like smartphones. Food-service and dining industries have therefore begun to pay closer attention to improving the visual impression of the foods they offer. This study focused on determining whether participants’ visual attention directed toward food-item images can vary depending on the background saliency. Differences in patterns of visual attention with respect to food-item images between North American and Chinese participants were also compared. During the time participants were looking at pictures of food items with varying backgrounds in the absence of a particular task, their eye movements were traced with an eye-tracker. As background contexts such as table setting and decoration became more salient, participants’ visual attention toward the food items decreased. Chines participants also looked at food items significantly later than American counterparts, implying that Chinese participants were relatively more influenced by background contexts. In conclusion, our findings provide empirical evidence that background context and culture can affect participants’ visual attention while they are freely looking at pictures of food items.