Food at first sight: Visual attention to palatable food cues on TV and subsequent unhealthy food intake in unsuccessful restrained eaters

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Background: This study investigated whether unsuccessful dieters show heightened visual attention to food cues in TV content and how visual attention influences subsequent unhealthy food intake. This study adds to prior literature by investigating the influence of visual attention to food cues on food intake with actual media content (i.e., instead of isolated food cues such as pictures or words) and by differentiating between chronic dieters (i.e., restrained eaters) who vary in dieting success (i.e., perceived self-regulatory success [PSRS]). To get a more detailed insight into different processes of visual attention, two measures of attention (i.e., initial orientation and attention duration) were examined. Methods: Unrestrained (n = 34) and restrained eaters (n = 28) varying in PSRS watched a talk show containing subtly depicted, palatable food cues. While watching, their visual attention to the food cues was measured with an eye-tracker. Unhealthy food intake was assessed afterwards in a taste test. Results: A two-way interaction between eating restraint and PSRS on initial visual orientation was found: unsuccessful restrained eaters' initial orientation to food cues was faster compared to that of successful restrained eaters. There were no significant findings on attention duration. Furthermore, visual attention did not predict unhealthy food intake. Discussion: Unsuccessful restrained eaters' fast initial orientation, but no longer attention duration, suggests that self-regulation may be important at early stages of visual attention. Future research on this topic should continue to differentiate between initial orientation and attention duration, as well as between more and less successful restrained eaters. The lack of findings on unhealthy food intake suggest that food cues embedded in actual media content might have less influence on eating behavior compared to isolated food cues.