Evaluating eating behavior traits of virtual targets: Attitudes and empathy.

ABSTRACT: There are many common stereotypes related to food consumption and eating behaviors that are considered indicative of one's personal character. Negative evaluations of an individual based on their eating behaviors may lead to stigmatization and other harmful psychosocial outcomes. Using vignette scenarios, we examined 582 participants' attitudes towards two target characters who exhibited bitter food dislike and high reward-based eating drive respectively. In open-ended text responses, participants were more likely to respond negatively and use stigmatizing language when describing the character with high reward-based eating drive versus the character with bitter food dislike. In addition, empathic responses depended on whether participants believed they, themselves, exhibited reward-based

SUBMITTER: Ravuri SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11301783 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature