The role played by negative affect in food reappraisal

Abstract

Food-related cognitive reappraisal refers to reinterpreting thoughts about eating and can be used to downregulate the desire to eat. Food reappraisal has been proposed as a method for treating obesity and overweight. However, the influence of food reappraisal on affective states has been understudied. The present study examined the role played by negative affect in the effects of food reappraisal. Two experiments were conducted, each included 40 healthy participants. In Experiment 1, participants engaged in a dual task that combined a food reappraisal task with an emotion picture rating task. The results demonstrated that reappraising the desire to eat craved foods results in increased negativity ratings of emotionally neutral pictures. Experiment 2 examined if an increase in negative affect after engaging in food reappraisal mediates the effect of food reappraisal on the desire to eat. In this experiment, after participants engaged in food reappraisal, they subjectively rated their negative affect and their desire to eat a previously depicted food. As in Experiment 1, participants rated higher levels of negative affect after engaging in food reappraisal. Importantly, the results revealed that levels of negative affect mediated the effect of food reappraisal on downregulating the desire to eat. The findings suggest that negative affect is both a consequence of food reappraisal and a potential mechanism of action. Given the role played by negative affect in food reappraisal, the findings call for further exploration of long-term costs vs. benefits of food reappraisal as an intervention for obesity and overweight.