C. Peter Herman

The Effect of Pre-exposure to Food Cues on the Eating Behavior of Restrained and Unrestrained Eaters

This study investigated the effect of pre-exposure to two types of food cues (olfactory and cognitive) on food intake by restrained and unrestrained eaters. Subjects were exposed to either no cue, an olfactory cue, a cognitive cue or a combination of the two types of food cues for ten minutes prior to eating. Restrained eaters ate significantly more than did unrestrained eaters after exposure to the food cues. There was no difference in food intake when there was no pre-exposure to the cues. Although baseline subjective ratings were equivalent for both groups of subjects, after cue pre-exposure, restrained subjects, in keeping with their increased consumption, indicated a significantly greater craving, liking, and desire to eat the cued food (pizza) than did the unrestrained subjects. These findings suggest that restrained eaters are more sensitive and reactive to food cues than are unrestrained eaters. The food cues appeared to generate an appetitive urge to eat in restrained eaters.

Effects of Exposure to Thin Media Images: Evidence of Self-Enhancement among Restrained Eaters:

The effects of viewing media-portrayed idealized body images on eating, self-esteem, body image, and mood among restrained and unrestrained eaters were examined. Study 1 found that restrained eaters (i.e., dieters), but not unrestrained eaters, rated both their ideal and current body sizes as smaller and disinhibited their food intake following exposure to idealized body images. These results suggest that restrained eaters are susceptible to a “thin fantasy” brought about by viewing ideal body images. Study 2 found that strengthening thinness attainability beliefs can further enhance the thin fantasy demonstrated by restrained eaters following exposure to idealized body images. Study 3 examined whether demand characteristics moderate these effects of media-portrayed idealized body images. As predicted, when explicit demand characteristics were present, participants reported feeling worse following exposure to thin models. The complexities of the media’s role in the development and maintenance of body dissatisfaction and dieting behavior are discussed.

Normative influences on food intake.

Hunger and satiety have conventionally provided the framework for understanding eating and overeating. We argue that hunger and satiety play a relatively small role in everyday eating. The normative control of food intake refers to the fact that our eating is largely governed by the motive to avoid eating excessively. Dieters impose a restrictive intake norm on themselves, but often violate the norm. Personal norms are individualized rules that people develop to help themselves decide how much is appropriate to eat in a given situation. Situational norms are derived from the eating situation itself; examples include portion size and social influence, which exert powerful effects on intake. We discuss the implications of a normative approach to the analysis of eating and overeating.

Self-Esteem, Restraint, and Eating Behavior

The mediating influence of self-esteem on disinhibited eating was assessed in restrained and unrestrained subjects. Self-esteem was unrelated to the eating behavior of unrestrained subjects following a preload, but did moderate the disinhibitory effects of a preload on restrained subjects. Specifically, only those restrained subjects with low self-esteem displayed disinhibited eating after a preload. Theoretical and practical implications of this finding were discussed.

Social facilitation of eating among friends and strangers.

Research suggests that meals eaten with other people are larger than meals eaten alone. The effect of group size and acquaintance on consumption was investigated by serving dinner to female subjects alone, in pairs or in groups of four. Subjects dined alone, with friends or with strangers. Subjects in both pairs and groups of four ate more than did subjects alone, suggesting that the mere presence of others is more important in enhancing intake than the specific number of people present. Subjects with friends ate more dessert than subjects with strangers, indicating that the relationship of dining companions is an important factor contributing to social facilitation.

The effects of self-attention and public attention on eating in restrained and unrestrained subjects.

Two experiments were conducted to assess the effects of self-attention and public attention to food intake on eating by dieters and nondieters. Female dieters ate the greatest number of candies ad lib after consuming a forced two-milk shake preload; the addition of either self-attention or implied public attention, through the manipulated availability of a waste basket for the disposing of candy wrappers, inhibited eating substantially. For nondieters, the preload itself inhibited candy consumption, which declined further only under conditions of public attention to candy intake. In a second experiment, self- and public attention again inhibited the cookie consumption of preloaded dieters, but preloaded nondieters were not influenced by the attention manipulations, eating minimally in all conditions. Nondieters who were not preloaded, however, did reduce their intake in the two attention conditions. Implications for regulatory self-control were discussed.

Undieting : a program to help people stop dieting

We report on the development and preliminary evaluation of a 10-week group program intended to raise womens consciousness about the costs and side effects of dieting and to provide alternatives to strenuous weight loss efforts. Eighteen female participants were assessed on self-esteem, depression, restraint, and eating pathology measures before the sessions began, at the end of the 70-week program, and (for two of the three groups) 6 months after the sessions ended. Subjects also filled out state self-esteem scales each week. By the end of the program participants had significantly higher self-esteem and lower depression, eating pathology, and restraint. Subjects also reported life-style changes accompanying these psychological improvements. We consider the implications for treating dieting and encouraging “natural eating”.

Anxiety, Hunger, and Eating Behavior

In this study we examined the effects of anxiety and food deprivation on the amount of food consumed ad lib by dieters and nondieters. Eighty female college students served as subjects in an ostensible market research study in which an anxiety manipulation was embedded. Reassignment of the subjects to anxiety condition on the basis of self-reported anxiety produced a significant (p < .02) three-way interaction among level of anxiety, food deprivation, and dieting status. The results suggest that (a) for nondieters, anxiety suppresses hunger but has no effect when subjects are not initially hungry, and (b) for dieters, anxiety increases eating only when the subject is initially hungry. These results are interpreted in terms of Herman and Polivys (1984) boundary model of eating. Researchers have long viewed the effects of anxiety on eating as depending primarily on the type of person involved. Normal (nonobese, nondieting) people, who are presumably responsive to their physiological state, are expected to react to anxiety or stress by eating less. The physiological effects of stress include the inhibition of gastric contractions and the elevation of blood sugar, both of which ought to suppress hunger. Thus the normal individual, who uses such internal cues (or their correlates) as the basis for the regulation of eating, ought to eat less when stressed. Expectations regarding the effect of stress on overweight people are more variable. Early psychodynamic views (summarized by Kaplan & Kaplan, 1957) held that eating may reduce anxiety for some people; these people, owing to their reliance on eating to assuage distress, will in all likelihood become overweight. By the same token, we may expect obese people to respond to distress by overeating. Bruch (1961) developed an interesting variation on this theme. She argued that early mislabeling may lead some people to confuse emotional distress with hunger and to respond to such distress with eating; naturally, responding to an inappropriately wide range of internal cues might well promote obesity. In contrast, Schachter, Goldman, and Gordon (1968) posited that obese people ignore internal (physiological) cues and regulate their eating on the basis of external (environmental) cues. Exclusive dependence on such cues can promote long-term weight gain, but the manipulation of internal cues (including those induced by anxiety) alone ought to have no effect on the obese persons eating. This theory, then, suggests that obese people neither undereat (as would normal weight people) nor

Human obesity, dieting, and anticipatory salivation to food

Abstract Two studies were conducted to investigate the anticipatory salivary response of obese and normal weight dieters and nondieters to palatable food presented visually and olfactorally. In the first study, dieters salivated more than did nondieters, although there were no differences in baseline salivation level, acute deprivation, or rated palatability of the food stimulus. Obesity per se did not contribute to the prediction of salivary response, once dieting was taken into account. These results were interpreted as consistent with a model of cephalic phase hyperresponsivity in individuals challenging their “set point” for weight. The second study examined the discriminative sensory control predicted by this model. Results with a palatable food stimulus replicated the pattern of the first study; with an unpalatable food stimulus, salivary response differences between dieters and nondieters were eliminated. Previous obese/normal differences in salivation to palatable food are interpreted as due to the prevalence of dieting among the obese.

Construct validation of the Restraint Scale in normal-weight and overweight females.

The Restraint Scale (RS) is a widely used measure to assess restrained eating. The purpose of this study was to examine the construct validity of the RS in a sample of normal-weight (n=349) and overweight (n=409) females using confirmatory factor analyses of the RS in relation to other measures for dieting, overeating and body dissatisfaction. Following Laessle et al. [(1989a). A comparison of the validity of three scales for the assessment of dietary restraint. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 98, 504-507], we assumed a three-factor structure: (1) overeating and disinhibitory eating, (2) dieting and restriction of food intake, and (3) body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. Analyses revealed that the RS loaded significantly on all three factors for both samples, confirming its multifactorial structure. However, the RS appears to capture these constructs differently in overweight and normal-weight females such that the RS may overestimate restraint in overweight individuals. This may explain the greater effectiveness of the RS in predicting counter-regulation in normal-weight than in overweight samples of dieters.