Impact of simulated ostracism on overweight and normal-weight youths’ motivation to eat and food intake

Abstract

There is growing evidence that the experience of being ostracized can impair individuals abilities to self-regulate, which in turn, leads to negative health behaviors, such as increased unhealthy eating. Research has focused on adults, but deficits in eating regulation in response to ostracism may be particularly detrimental for overweight or obese youth. This study examines the effects of a brief episode of ostracism on the motivation to eat and food intake of overweight and normalweight young adolescents (M age = 13.6 years). A computerized ball-tossing game (Cyberball) was used to induce ostracism or inclusion. Following the inclusion/ostracism manipulation, all participants completed an operant computer task to earn points exchangeable for portions of food or for time socializing with an unfamiliar peer. Participants' responses for food and their subsequent energy intake were recorded. As hypothesized, ostracized overweight participants responded more for food and had a greater energy intake than overweight participants in the inclusion/control condition; whereas this was not the case for normal-weight participants. These results are important as studies indicate that overweight and obese youth may be at risk of social isolation and peer difficulties. Social adversity, if left unchanged, may increase the difficulty of promoting long-term changes in overweight youths' health behaviors. KeywordsOstracism; reinforcing value of food; overweight and normal-weight youth

Perceived social isolation, evolutionary fitness and health outcomes: a lifespan approach

“…Attention regulation was also impaired in an experimental manipulation that threatened social exclusion [49]. This study also revealed that threatened social exclusion led to decrements in the ability to regulate eating behaviour [49], reminiscent of the effect of social exclusion on eating behaviour in obese adolescents [47].…”

“…Overweight participants in the ostracism condition were more motivated to eat (more mouse button presses for food) and ate a greater quantity of food than overweight participants in the social inclusion condition. Normal weight participants did not show this effect [47]. Thus, the effect of social adversity-be that ostracism, rejection, isolation-seems to weaken the ability to self-regulate and may exacerbate the challenge of promoting beneficial changes in lonely overweight youths' eating behaviours.…”

“…Evidence that executive functioning is affected by social factors in this age group is provided by a study of eating behaviour [47]. In a study of 59 adolescent males and females aged 12 -14 years, an experimental manipulation (i.e.…”

“…poor sleep quality [44,45] executive control impaired executive control [46] ! impaired control over eating behaviour in overweight adolescents [47] poorer attention regulation [48,49]; impaired control over eating behaviour [49] impaired optimization of positive emotions [50] self-reported health ! poorer general health [27]; more somatic symptoms [28] !…”

Diagnosing member-customer ostracism in co-operatives and counterpoising its relationship-poisoning effects

“…It entices people to spend and consume strategically (e.g. buying symbolic products; Mead et al, 2011), increases unhealthy food consumption (Salvy et al, 2011) and exacerbates financial risk-taking (Duclos et al, 2013). A mere "automatic reply e-mail" to customer complaints (i.e.…”