When you look at pictures of sushi, you crave Japanese food. Pictures of junk food can make your mouth water. Is the reverse true? If a photo can arouse your hunger, would it be able to silence it? Why not. According to a recent study conducted by the University of Aarhus, repeatedly looking at the image of the same food can help feel satiety.

“In our experiments, we showed that when participants saw the same food picture 30 times, they felt fuller than before seeing the picture. Participants who were shown the picture multiple times also chose a smaller portion than those who only saw the picture three times, when we then asked what portion size they wanted. It may seem odd that participants feel full without eating anything. But it’s really quite natural, ”explains doctoral student Tjark Andersen. Before continuing: “Your appetite is more closely linked to our cognitive perception than we think. How we think about our food is very important.”

To reach this conclusion, the scientists subjected more than 1,000 people to different digital experiments. They first showed a picture of orange M&Ms. Some participants saw the image three times, others 30 times. The group that saw the most pictures of M&Ms felt full soonest afterward, the researchers report. “They had to answer how many M&Ms between 1 and 10 they wanted. The group that had seen 30 images of these sweets chose a smaller quantity than the other two groups,” explains Tjark Andersen. For the authors of the study, these results can help control appetite and reduce food intake. These findings were published in the journal Appetite.