It Turns Out Eating Popcorn In The Cinema Makes You Immune To Advertising

By Ellen TannamPublished 19 Jan 2016, 20:53Updated 19 Jan 2016, 21:20More from Ellen Tannam

Going to the cinema is about the experience of it, and a huge part of that is buying food to devour during your film of choice.

It’s National Popcorn Day over in the US, and it is undisputedly the most delicious cinema snack out there, and don’t even get me started on putting Minstrels in the mix. Magic.

In the spirit of the day, The Guardian reports that eating popcorn actually makes us immune to the effects of on-screen ads in the cinema.

We usually automatically pronounce a new name in our heads while mouthing it at the same time, completely subconsciously.

However, this pattern can be disturbed by chewing, which is where popcorn comes in.

Researchers brought 96 subjects to the cineam and half were given free popcorn, while the other half were given a small sugar cube which dissolved immediately.

“A test at the end of the screening showed that the adverts had left no effect on those viewers who had chewed their way through popcorn throughout, while the other participants showed positive psychological responses to the products they had encountered in the ads.”

We hope this won’t mean the end of shovelling handfuls of that delicious stuff into our mouths while enjoying a movie.