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Film-induced sadness as a trigger for disinhibited eating
C L Sheppard-Sawyer1, R J McNally, J H Fischer
1Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Objective:
We tested whether film-induced sadness enhances food intake in restrained eaters.
Method:
Female participants scoring either high or low on a measure of dietary restraint viewed two film segments in counterbalanced order on successive days: an emotionally neutral travelogue and a sad film depicting the death of the young female protagonist.
Results:
Contrast analyses revealed that film-induced sadness significantly reduced food intake in low-restraint individuals, but only nonsignificantly increased it in high-restraint individuals.
Discussion:
When sadness is induced without an apparent ego threat, high-restraint participants may not exhibit as much disinhibited eating as when they are exposed to mood inductions that threaten their self-esteem.