Haste Makes Distaste

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  • Title: Haste Makes Distaste: Consistent Unpleasant Biases Toward Obesogenic Foods on the Implicit Association Test
  • Author(s): Shane Reader, Miguel Moreno
  • Publisher: Common Ground Research Networks
  • Collection: Common Ground Research Networks
  • Series: Food Studies
  • Journal Title: Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal
  • Keywords: Implicit Association Test, Implicit Bias, Food Associations, Food Choice
  • Volume: 8
  • Issue: 1
  • Date: February 16, 2018
  • ISSN: 2160-1933 (Print)
  • ISSN: 2160-1941 (Online)
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/2160-1933/CGP/v08i01/23-33
  • Citation: Reader, Shane, and Miguel Moreno. 2018. "Haste Makes Distaste: Consistent Unpleasant Biases Toward Obesogenic Foods on the Implicit Association Test." Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 8 (1): 23-33. doi:10.18848/2160-1933/CGP/v08i01/23-33.
  • Extent: 11 pages

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Abstract

Implicit Association Tests (IATs) regarding food attitudes reveal a consistent unpleasant bias against obesogenic foods in contrast to individuals’ innate, biologically-driven preference toward high calorie food items. However, recent IAT research in this domain has stumbled in selecting stimuli with ecological validity, often choosing items that participants may not perceive as representative of their nutritional value and using lexical stimuli that fail to capture the full appetitive salience of the target constructs or align with contemporaneous IAT research. In study one, we deployed a lexical IAT using stimuli chosen for their perceived caloric value rather than their objective nutritional content, finding a strong, unpleasant implicit bias toward obesogenic food regardless of participant BMI. In study two, we translated the lexical items of our IAT into photographs to produce a visual IAT that better approximates the appetitive salience of the target constructs. Participants continued to demonstrate a robust distaste toward obesogenic foods on the visual IAT, regardless of appetitive factors including weight status, hunger, and predilection toward food addiction. This reliable implicit bias, orthogonal to behavior, is consistent with IAT studies regarding substances of abuse, including tobacco and alcohol.