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Judgments of body weight based on food intake: A pervasive cognitive bias among restrained eaters
Author(s) -
Vartanian Lenny R.,
Herman C. Peter,
Polivy Janet
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/eat.20440
Subject(s) - psychology , cognition , food intake , developmental psychology , body weight , cognitive psychology , clinical psychology , medicine , neuroscience , endocrinology
Objective: Two studies examined the influence of meal‐size information on restrained and unrestrained eaters' judgments of body weight and size. Method: In Study 1, restrained and unrestrained eaters made body‐weight and body‐size judgments of a woman who had eaten either a small meal or a large meal. In Study 2, participants watched a video of a woman eating a small or large meal, and selected from two photographs of women's bodies (a heavier one and a thinner one), the woman whom they had seen in the video. Results: Restrained eaters were influenced by meal‐size information, judging women who had eaten a smaller meal as being thinner and weighing less (Study 1), and also choosing the thinner body to represent the woman who had eaten a smaller meal (Study 2). Unrestrained eaters were not influenced by food‐intake information. Conclusion: Restrained eaters' (but not unrestrained eaters') judgments of others appear to be biased by meal‐size information, suggesting that restrained eaters' food‐ and weight‐related cognitive biases might be more pervasive than has previously been assumed. © 2007 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2008