Restrained and unrestrained females' positive and negative associations with specific foods and body parts.
OBJECTIVE
This study was concerned with the positive and negative affective associations of categories of "forbidden" and "allowed" foods, and "threatening" and "nonthreatening" body parts, among dieters and nondieters.


METHODS
Forty-one females, categorized according to their cognitive restraint scores, completed a rating task that involved indicating the extent to which each food and body part was associated with three positive and three negative emotions or experiences, as well as with health and illness.


RESULTS
Judgements of forbidden foods were more positive. There was also a significant restraint group by food type interaction for negative judgements of forbidden foods. A significant interaction was also produced for subjects' negative ratings of body parts; subjects high in restraint were more likely to rate threatening parts higher on guilt and on anxiety. Forbidden foods were rated lower on health and higher on illness, and high restraint subjects rated both food types more healthy compared with subjects low in restraint.


CONCLUSIONS
Taken together, the results emphasize the subtlety in the affective associations with foods and body parts, which depend on their categorization or specific meanings. Fewer differences emerged when we compared subjects from the high and low restraint groups. Emotionality could underly the "attentional biases" reported in studies using the modified Stroop.
Gattellari
M
M
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Huon
G F
GF
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001828:Body Image; D004038:Diet, Reducing / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015431:Weight Loss