The impact of emotion upon eating behavior: the role of subliminal visual processing of threat cues

Previous research has demonstrated that subliminal threat cues can influence eating behavior. The present study examined whether this effect is due to general emotional activation (by comparing positive and negative emotional cues), whether it is a product of specific negative emotional activation, and whether it can be achieved by activating appetite-related schemata.

One hundred women avoided food for at least 4 hr and then completed a task where they were exposed to one of five subliminal visual cues. The dependent variable was the amount eaten subsequently.

Women who were exposed to the abandonment cue (lonely) ate significantly more than those who were exposed to the neutral cue (gallery), the positive emotional cue (happy), or the appetitive cue (hungry). Those with unhealthy eating attitudes also ate more after the hostile emotion cue (angry) than after the neutral cue.

The results support cognitive models that stress an important role for threat processing in the facilitation of eating, rather than models advocating the centrality of food-related information. Abandonment schemata appear to be activated at an earlier stage than appetite-related schemata.