title: As pleasure unfolds. Hedonic responses to tempting food.
abstract: Why do chronic dieters often violate their dieting goals? One possibility is that they experience stronger hedonic responses to tempting food than normal eaters do. We scrutinized hedonic processing in dieters and normal eaters (a) by manipulating food preexposure and (b) by assessing both immediate and delayed hedonic responses to tempting food with an adapted affect-misattribution procedure. Without food preexposure, dieters showed less positive hedonic responses than normal eaters (Study 1). When preexposed to tempting-food stimuli, however, dieters exhibited more positive delayed hedonic responses than normal eaters (Studies 1 and 2). Furthermore, delayed hedonic responding was meaningfully related to self-reported power of food and state cravings (Study 2). These findings suggest that dieters experience difficulties in down-regulating hedonic affect when in a "hot" state and that self-regulation research may benefit from a greater emphasis on temporal dynamics rather than static differences.
authors.affiliation: Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, 5807 South Woodlawn Ave., Chicago, IL 60637, USA. wilhelm.hofmann@chicagobooth.edu
authors.forename: Wilhelm
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hofmann
authors.forename: Guido M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: van Koningsbruggen
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Stroebe
authors.forename: Suresh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramanathan
authors.forename: Henk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aarts
mesh_terms: D004038:Diet, Reducing / Q000523:psychology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D057181:Pleasure; D055815:Young Adult