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Self‐Awareness, Task Failure, and Disinhibition: How Attentional Focus Affects Eating
Author(s) -
Heatherton Todd F.,
Polivy Janet,
Herman C. Peter,
Baumeister Roy F.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1993.tb00278.x
Subject(s) - psychology , dieting , distraction , task (project management) , disinhibition , interoception , social psychology , cognitive psychology , psychiatry , weight loss , medicine , obesity , perception , management , neuroscience , economics
Dieting and nondieting subjects were given either failure or neutral performance feedback on a problem‐solving task. Failure subjects were then assigned to one of three self‐awareness conditions: One group was forced to watch a video clip of themselves failing on the problem‐solving task, one group was asked to watch a distracting video clip on bighorn sheep, and the final group was asked to sit quietly for 10 minutes. Subjects were then allowed to eat as much ice cream as they wanted. Only in those conditions which allowed—or promoted—low self‐awareness (the failure/distraction and simple failure condition) did dieters show disinhibited eating. In the failure/videotape condition, which enforced high levels of self‐awareness, eating in dieters remained inhibited. This supports the proposal that a reduction in self‐awareness is necessary for lifting of inhibitions. Eating in nondieters was reduced in the failure/videotape and simple failure conditions, possibly because of the autonomic correlates of distress.