Impaired color naming of food and body shape words: Weight phobia or distinct affective state?

Abstract

Objective The current study investigated whether a concern with body shape and weight represents a distinct affective state, or whether it is better conceptualized as a highly specific form of anxiety. Method: The color‐naming performance of women with a high Drive for Thinness score was examined under three experimental conditions: when a photograph of chocolate was present, when actual chocolate was present, and a control condition. High Drive for Thinness subjects demonstrated relatively impaired color naming of body shape words in the picture condition, but not in the food or control conditions. Results: Although there was a significant impairment in the color naming of food words, this was unaffected by condition or degree of Drive for Thinness. Discussion: The results are interpreted as supporting an analogy between weight/body shape concerns and subclinical phobic anxiety. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Does dietary learning occur outside awareness?

“…This may result from a preoccupation with task-irrelevant cognitions that relate to food, body shape, and dieting (Green, Elliman, Rogers, & Welch, 1997;Green & Rogers, 1995. If dietary learning is found to require CS-US awareness, then it may be disrupted by this cognitive activity.…”