Implicit affective associations predict snack choice for those with low, but not high levels of eating disorder symptomatology

Ellis, Erin M.; Kiviniemi, Marc T.; Cook‐Cottone, Catherine

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2014.03.003

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Once again, we found that the two groups differed in their automatic hunger responses to healthy and unhealthy foods, and that of healthy (e.g., fruit) and unhealthy (e.g., candy) foods predict whether people will purchase or consume the former over the latter (Ellis, Kiviniemi, & Cook-Cottone, 2014;Prestwich, Hurling & Baker, 2011) as well as their likelihood of gaining weight across a one year period (Nederkoorn et al, 2010). Despite such findings, no published study has examined whether automatic food-related responses represent a useful determinant of food intake in clinical populations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Obesity, food restriction, and implicit attitudes to healthy and unhealthy foods: Lessons learned from the implicit relational assessment procedure

et al. 2016

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. Electronic mail should be sent to sean.hughes@ugent.be. IRAP Food Cognition 2 AbstractIt has been argued that obese individuals evaluate high caloric, palatable foods more positively than their normal weight peers, and that this positivity bias causes them to consume such foods, even when healthy alternatives are available. Yet when self-reported and automatic food preferences are assessed no such evaluative biases tend to emerge. We argue that situational (food deprivation) and methodological factors may explain why implicit measures often fail to discriminate between the food-evaluations of these two groups. Across three studies we manipulated the food deprivation state of clinically obese and normal-weight participants and then exposed them to an indirect procedure (IRAP) and self-report questionnaires. We found that automatic food-related cognition was moderated by a person's weight status and food deprivation state. Our findings suggest that the diagnostic and predictive value of implicit measures may be increased when (a) situational moderators are taken into consideration and (b)we pay greater attention to the different ways in which people automatically relate rather than simply categorize food stimuli. The Western world is currently facing an obesity epidemic. Over the past three decades, obesity rates have exploded at an alarming rate (Finucane et al., 2011), to the point that one in three adults in the United States (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2014) as well as one in five Europeans are currently overweight (WHO, 2013). As prevalence rates have grown so too have the health-related, socioeconomic, and psychological costs associated with this phenomenon (Finkelstein, Ruhm, & Kosal, 2005;Wardle & Cooke, 2005). With obesity comes an increased risk of type-II diabetes, adult heart disease, as well as several forms of cancer and premature morbidity (Reilly, et al., 2003;Wang, McPherson, Marsh, Gortmaker, & Brown, 2011). In addition to its economic burden, obesity is also associated with a host of psychosocial problems, including anxiety, depression, and social discrimination (see Puhl & Heuer, 2009; Sutin, Stephan, & Terracciano, 2015;Wang et al., 2011). If we are to design effective interventions to ameliorate or even reverse this epidemic then research will need to elucidate those factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of this phenomenon.One such factor appears to be food choice, and in particular, the excessive consumption of energy dense foods containing high levels of calories, sugars, and fat as well as the under consumption of nutrient dense foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Accumulating evidence suggests that obese individuals tend to consume higher levels of fats, sugars, and proteins than their normal-weight counterparts (e.g., Mai et al., 2011;McGloin et al., 2002;Nicklas, Yang, Baranowski, Zakeri, & Berenson, 2003). Several authors have sought to explain this maladaptive pattern of behavior in terms of food-related evaluations. That is, obese individuals are t...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Obesity, food restriction, and implicit attitudes to healthy and unhealthy foods: Lessons learned from the implicit relational assessment procedure

et al. 2016

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“…Implicit biases predict food choice when individuals have a low cognitive capacity (e.g., being distracted or emotional after watching an upsetting film) or when there is low inhibitory control (e.g., high levels of impulsivity) [11,65,66]. Low inhibitory control heightens the impact of implicit food biases on overeating [67][68][69] and is associated with the ingestion of higher amounts of high-calorie food [70,71] the failure of diets [72], and even with obesity [70,[73][74][75][76]. Other authors found that implicit affective bias was a significant predictor of snack choice at low, but not high levels of ED symptomatology [76].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Low inhibitory control heightens the impact of implicit food biases on overeating [67][68][69] and is associated with the ingestion of higher amounts of high-calorie food [70,71] the failure of diets [72], and even with obesity [70,[73][74][75][76]. Other authors found that implicit affective bias was a significant predictor of snack choice at low, but not high levels of ED symptomatology [76]. Given the prior inconsistencies in the strength of the relation between implicit bias and spontaneous eating behavior [64], the study by [76] suggests that ED symptomatology may moderate the strength of the relation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other authors found that implicit affective bias was a significant predictor of snack choice at low, but not high levels of ED symptomatology [ 76 ]. Given the prior inconsistencies in the strength of the relation between implicit bias and spontaneous eating behavior [ 64 ], the study by [ 76 ] suggests that ED symptomatology may moderate the strength of the relation. Possibly, elevated self-control, as in some types of EDs, reduces the impact of implicit affective biases on behavior [ 77 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Implicit bias to food and body cues in eating disorders: a systematic review

et al. 2020

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Background Rigid, restrictive eating patterns, fear of gaining weight, body image concerns, but also binge eating episodes with loss of control leading to overweight, at times followed by compensatory measures to control weight, are typical symptoms in eating disorders (EDs). The regulation of food intake in EDs may underlie explicit processes that require cognitive insight and conscious control or be steered by implicit mechanisms that are mostly automatic, rapid, and associated with affective-rather than cognitive-processing. While introspection is not capable of assessing implicit responses, so-called indirect experimental tasks can assess implicit responses underlying a specific behavior bypassing the participant's consciousness. Here, we aimed to present the current evidence regarding studies on implicit biases to food and body cues in patients with EDs. Methods We performed a systematic review (PRISMA guidelines). We included controlled studies performed in clinical ED cohorts (vs. healthy control subjects or another control condition, e.g., restrictive vs. binge/purge AN) and using at least one indirect assessment method of interest. Results Out of 115 screened publications, we identified 29 studies fulfilling the eligibility criteria, and present a synthesis of the essential findings and future directions. Conclusion In this emerging field of research, the present work provides cornerstones of evidence highlighting aspects of implicit regulation in eating disorders. Applying both direct (e.g., self-reports) and indirect measures for the assessment of both explicit and implicit responses is necessary for a comprehensive investigation of the interplay between these different regulatory mechanisms and eating behavior. Targeted training of implicit reactions is already in use and represents a useful future tool as an add-on to standard psychotherapeutic treatments in the battle against eating disorders. Evidence level 1 (systematic review).

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“…We assessed implicit affect toward eating, average body, and EDsymptom stimuli with the affect misattribution procedure (AMP; Payne, Cheng, Govorun, & Stewart, 2005). The AMP is a widely used tool for studying implicit cognition and has been used to study evaluations of food and bodies among those with and without AN (Spring & Bulik, 2014) and has also been used to predict eating behaviors (Ellis, Kiviniemi, & Cook-Cottone, 2014).…”

Section: Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Implicit attitudes toward eating stimuli differentiate eating disorder and non‐eating disorder groups and predict eating disorder behaviors

Smith

Forrest

Velkoff

et al. 2018

Intl J Eating Disorders

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Implicit affective associations predict snack choice for those with low, but not high levels of eating disorder symptomatology

Cited by 12 publications

References 45 publications

Obesity, food restriction, and implicit attitudes to healthy and unhealthy foods: Lessons learned from the implicit relational assessment procedure

Obesity, food restriction, and implicit attitudes to healthy and unhealthy foods: Lessons learned from the implicit relational assessment procedure

Implicit bias to food and body cues in eating disorders: a systematic review

Implicit attitudes toward eating stimuli differentiate eating disorder and non‐eating disorder groups and predict eating disorder behaviors

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