Stroop interference for food- and body-related words: a meta-analysis

According to cognitive theories of eating disorders, biased information processing in favour of dysfunctional attitudes about food and body appearance plays a vital role in the development and maintenance of such disorders. Data from 27 studies evaluating Stroop interference for food- and body-related words with negative overtones were included in a meta-analysis in order to investigate whether such processing biases are specific to eating disordered samples. Participants were females characterised as eating disordered, non-eating disordered but nevertheless over-concerned with body appearance and eating, and normal controls. Mean Stroop interference for eating disordered females was of medium effect size (Cohen's d=0.48) and significantly larger than for both non-eating disordered females concerned with body appearance and eating, and normal control females (both d=0.21). Stroop interference for eating disordered females was thus of fairly modest magnitude where it was unclear whether such interference is specific to this sample.