At first sight: how do restrained eaters evaluate high-fat palatable foods?

Abstract

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that restrained eaters display a greater liking for high-fat palatable foods, than do unrestrained eaters. This hypothesis was tested in the affective priming paradigm [Fazio, R. H., Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Powell, M. C., & Kardes, F. R. (1986). On the automatic activation of attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 229–238] and in the extrinsic affective Simon task [De Houwer, J. (2003a). The extrinsic affective Simon task. Experimental Psychology, 50, 77–85] . Both paradigms were successful in uncovering food likes and dislikes, and both showed that participants were able to evaluate the palatability of foods relatively automatically. However, contrary to the hypothesis, food likes were not substantially affected by fat content, nor were they affected by restraint-status. Restrained and unrestrained eaters may like high-fat palatable foods to the same extent, but may differ in their craving for these foods.