The effect of appearance-related media on implicit cognitive responses to food

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate how exposure to commercials featuring thin or plus-size models affects women's implicit cognitive responses to food. One hundred sixteen college-age women watched a neutral documentary that contained a commercial depicting either a thin woman (n = 39), a plus-size woman (n = 38), or content with no human actors (n = 39). After the documentary, women completed the Flanker task to measure their implicit attention to foods, the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) to measure their implicit evaluation of food, and a measure of state body dissatisfaction. Results revealed those who viewed the commercial of the plus-size model experienced response conflict in the Flanker task on trials in which the healthy food targets were flanked by unhealthy distractor foods, whereas those who viewed the thin model or the neutral commercial did not. The groups did not differ in their implicit liking of the foods in the AMP or their state body dissatisfaction. These results suggest that although briefly viewing appearance-related media may not shift women's state body image or their evaluation of food, they are more easily distracted by unhealthy foods and as a result, may be more motivated to consume unhealthy foods.