Emotional eating moderates the relationship between implicit measures of attitudes and chocolate consumption

Emotional eaters tend to eat more when emotionally aroused and their food-related actions are associated with lack of control. Two studies tested the hypothesis that implicit measures of attitudes would be more strongly associated with the dietary behaviour of emotional eaters. In both Study 1 (N=32) and Study 2 (N=101), participants completed the DEBQ sub-scale of emotional eating and implicit measures of attitude, explicit attitude and behaviour measures concerning chocolate consumption. In both studies, high emotional eaters were more likely than low emotional eaters to eat in line with their implicit measures of attitudes. The relationship between implicit measures of attitudes and food intake varies as a function of emotional eating style.