The tempting effect of forbidden foods. High calorie content evokes conflicting implicit and explicit evaluations in restrained eaters

In this study, restrained and unrestrained eaters’ immediate evaluations of high calorie content and low calorie content were measured, both when being deprived of food and when satiated. As an indirect measure, the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST) [De Houwer, J. (2003). The Extrinsic Affective Simon Task. Experimental Psychology, 50, 77–85.] was used. Explicit attitudes towards high calorie content and low calorie content were also assessed. Food deprivation was found to boost the value of food for all subjects on an impulsive level of information processing. More importantly, it was also found that restrained eaters exhibit a dissociative pattern of positive implicit and negative explicit attitudes towards high calorie content, but not towards low calorie content. Furthermore, restrained eaters evaluated high calorie content more negative than unrestrained eaters on an explicit level, but more positive on an implicit level. Results from this study are twofold. First, they suggest that conflicting evaluative reactions from two systems of information processing may play a central role in the restrained eaterʹs dilemma. Second, individual differences between restrained and unrestrained eaters’ attitudes towards high calorie content should further be investigated.