Self-affirmation and healthy food choice

Self-affirmation has been shown to increase open-mindedness and facilitate attitude and behavior change to threatening information. The current study expanded on this research by exploring how self-affirmation impacts healthy food choice in women. In addition, reading time and performance on a memory recall task were investigated as potential mechanisms explaining the effect of self-affirmation on food choice. Participants underwent a self-affirmation manipulation followed by exposure to an article describing the decline in social quality of life associated with obesity. After a short filler task, a memory recall task of the previously read article was performed followed by a dichotomous food choice task containing a healthy and unhealthy food option. Regression analysis revealed that participants with high Body Mass Index (BMI) spent a longer time reading the threatening article after self-affirming compared to those who did not self-affirm. In addition, this manipulation led participants with high BMIs to opt for the unhealthy food option. Limitations and potential future research are discussed.