Pupillometric analysis of two theories of obesity

A pupillometric analysis was conducted on the effects of internal and external food-related cues on overweight and normalweight subjects. Specifically, half of the subjects in each of these groups were sated and the other half hungry when they viewed slides of main courses and snacks. Only normalweight hungry subjects responded with markedly increased pupillary dilation, indicating heightened affect/interest, but to pictures of main courses, not to snacks. The lack of marked dilations among overweight subjects, even the so-called hungry group, seems to support Schachter's 1971 theory of obesity over Nisbett's 1972 one.