Beggars cannot be choosers [Elektronische Ressource] : the influence of food deprivation on food related disgust / vorgelegt von Atilla Höfling

Psy2186

Sujets

• Psychologie
• Gesundheit

Informations

• Publié par: julius-maximilians-universitat_wurzburg
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

BEGGARS CANNOT BE CHOOSERS


The Influence of Food Deprivation
on Food Related Disgust






Inaugural-Dissertation
zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der
Philosophischen Fakultät II
der
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg




vorgelegt von
Atilla Höfling
aus Würzburg
Würzburg, 2008


Acknowledgments

Albert Einstein once humorously said that “Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have
to earn one's living at it.” Thanks to my supervisor Fritz Strack, I can agree with that
statement with a wink. This is because by creating a working atmosphere characterized by
mutual confidence and competent advice, creativity, and the leeway to develop myself he
made me feel very positive about earning my living from science, actually. Thank you very
much for everything, Fritz!

I am also indebted to my colleagues Regina Krieglmeyer and Thomas Stemmler for
commenting on prior parts of my thesis. Moreover, I would like to express my heartfelt
gratitude to Thomas for his brilliant technical support during the last years. Thanks for giving
me such a helping hand, Thomas! There was never a problem too tricky for you to solve.

My profound gratitude goes to my student assistants who were part of this process and who
provided me with invaluable support over the last years. Dear Sabine, Andy, Caro, Lorena,
Lydia, Irina, Julia, and Hannah: Without your help, my thesis would not have become reality.
Thank you so much for your creative ideas, and your help in setting up the studies, collecting
the data, and analyzing them. A special “thanks” also goes to my former diploma students
Anna Friedel and Daniel Jäger, who were involved in two studies of the present thesis.

Thanks also to the whole team for valuable discussions and worthwhile comments regarding
my project and to Rita for organizing all the important things around our scientific work and
for keeping things running. Special thanks to my colleague Philippe for bearing up with me
during the ups and especially during the downs of my PhD project. I know that I must have
been a pain in the neck sometimes!

I would also like to express my gratitude to Prof. Paul Pauli who agreed to review the final
draft of my thesis, and Jörg Korczinski for proofreading.

Finally, I would like to thank my family and my partner Katharina for their love, their
confidence, and their emotional support during the last years and especially during the last
weeks. Thank you for being a source of joy, strength, and motivation that I could always rely
on, Kathi! Very special thanks also to our newborn son Vincent who was a source of joy and
strength during the last weeks of my project, too, but without even knowing so. You are by far
the greatest gift I could ever receive! TABLE OF CONTENTS

General Introduction and Thesis Outline ……………………………………… 1
Dissertation Goals and Thesis Outline ……… …………………………………… 4
Summary of Core Assumptions and Overview of Sections …………………........ 14

Section 1: Does Food Deprivation Reduce Food Related Disgust? …………… 17
Overview and Rationale of Study 1 and Study 2………………………………….. 17
Hypotheses of Study 1 and Study 2……………………………………………….. 18
Study 1: Food Deprivation and Food Related Disgust Measured with the FACS... 18
Study 2: Food Deprivation and Food Related Disgust measured via EMG ………. 28
General Discussion of Section 1 ………………………………………………….. 36

Section 2: Does Food Deprivation Increase Consumption of Disgusting Foods? 41
Overview and Rationale of Study 3 and Study 4 ………………………………….. 41
Hypotheses of Study 3 and Study 4 ……………………………………………….. 45
Study 3: Food Deprivation and Consumption of Genetically Modified Foods ….... 46
Study 4: Food Deprivation and Consumption of Genetically Modified Foods II
Ideational vs. Sensory Aspects as Reasons for Food Rejection ……………… 58
General Discussion of Section 2 ………………………………………………….. 67

Section 3: Does Food Deprivation Influence Automatic Attitudes
towards Disgusting Foods? ………………………………………………….. 72
Overview and Rationale of Study 5 and Study 6…………………………………... 72
Hypotheses of Study 5 and Study 6………………………………………………… 73
Study 5: Food Deprivation and Automatic Attitudes towards Disgusting Foods
Measured with the Single Target – IAT ………………………………………. 74
Study 6: Food Deprivation and Automatic Attitudes towards Disgusting Foods
Measured with the Affect Missattribution Procedure ……………………….... 82
General Discussion of Section 3 ………………………………………………..… 88

Section 4: Does Food Deprivation Modulate Immediate Approach
Motivational Tendencies towards Unpalatable Foods? ................................ 92
Overview and Rationale of Study 7 and Study 8 ………………………………….. 92
Hypotheses of Study 7 and Study 8 ……………………………………………….. 94
Study 7: Food Deprivation and Immediate Approach Motivational Tendencies I
– Category as Reaction Signal ……………………………………………..…. 95
Study 8: Food Deprivation and Immediate Approach Motivational Tendencies II
– Picture Frame as Reaction Signal ……………………………………..….. 105
General Discussion of Section 4 ……………………………………………..…… 109

Section 5: Does Food Deprivation Change the Relative Importance Of
Critical Food Attributes? …………………………………………….…… 113
Overview and Rationale of Study 9…………………………………………..…… 113
Hypotheses of Study 9 ……………………………………………………….…… 115
Study 9: Food Deprivation and the Relative Importance of Critical Food Attributes
– Beggars Cannot Be Choosers (Even if They Are Allowed to Choose) ……. 117

Summary of Results and Final Conclusions……………………………………… 128
Summary of Results ………………………………………………………………… 130
Final Conclusions ……………………………………………………………..…….. 137

References ……………………………………………………………………..…. 140

Appendix ……………………………………………………………………..…... 155




Food deprivation reduces food related disgust 1
General Introduction and Thesis Outline
The need for food is one of the most basic human needs. Given that food intake is
essential for survival it comes as no surprise that humans possess biological and psychological
systems which evolved to ensure the detection and ingestion of food (Pittman & Zeigler,
2007). For example, when being in a state of food deprivation need-relevant cues were found
to bind more attentional resources (e.g., Channon & Hayward, 1990; Mogg, Bradley, Hyare,
& Lee, 1998; Stockburger, Schmaelzle & Schupp, 2005), and to be perceived more readily
(Bruner, 1957; Wispe & Dramberean, 1953).
Moreover, need-relevant cues were evaluated more positively in self-report measures
(Brendl, Markman, & Messner, 2003; Cabanac, 1971; Drobes, Miller, Hillman, Bradley,
Cuthbert, & Lang, 2001; Lavy & van den Hout, 1993) and implicit measures by subjects who
were deprived of food (Hoefling & Strack, 2008; Seibt, Häfner, & Deutsch, 2007). Perceiving
food while hungry also reduces the magnitude of the startle eye blink (Hawk, Baschnagel,
Ashare & Epstein, 2004), indicating that when hungry, food has the potency to reduce
aversive reflexes (but see Drobes et al., 2001; Mauler, Hamm, Weike & Tuschen-Caffier,
2006 for diverging results).
Deprivation may not only influence attention and the evaluation of food cues, but also
motivational responses towards food. Particularly, eating relevant cues may activate an
immediate approach motivation in those who are deprived (Seibt et al., 2007), and this may
even be the case under frustrating conditions (Bulik & Brinded, 1994; Epstein, Truesdale,
Wojcik, Paluch, & Raynor, 2003; Lappalainen & Epstein, 1990; Raynor & Epstein, 2003).
Food Deprivation and Food Intake
Common sense also implies that there exists an evolutionary need to lower the threshold
of acceptance and consumption of foods under conditions of starvation (Herman & Polivy,
1984; Jacobs & Sharma, 1969; Nisbett, 1972; Pliner, Herman & Polivy, 1990). Anecdotal
evidence suggests, for example, that people under conditions of extreme starvation may even Food deprivation reduces food related disgust 2
eat dead human beings in order to stay alive (Berton, 1988; Gilbert, 1986; Hanson, 1999;
Keys, Brozek, Henschel, Mickelsen, Taylor, 1950; Read, 1974; Simpson, 1984).
In line with the above reasoning some studies revealed that even moderate levels of food
deprivation (< 24 hrs) do increase consumption of good tasting (preferred) and bad tasting
(unpreferred) foods in the same manner (Bellisle, Lucas, Amrani, Le Magnen, 1984; Desor,
1Maller, & Green, 1977; Hill, 1974; Hill & McCutcheon, 1975; Nisbett, 1968). Existing
explanations for this phenomenon focus on metabolic factors (e.g., the deprived organisms
need to ingest calories) and on the role of taste responsiveness under acute food deprivation
(Herman & Polivy, 1984; Jacobs & Sharma, 1969; Nisbett, 1972).
Food Deprivation and Food Related Disgust
However, there is still another explana