Previous studies have shown that humans show an implicit approach bias toward food related items which is moderated by hunger and properties of the food items displayed (such as their palatability and calorie content). However, little is known about if and how this approach bias is moderated by food preferences and/or diet choices. In this study, we compared approach-avoidance biases in a group of young female omnivore and vegetarian eaters towards images of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food items using a manikin stimulus-response compatibility task. While vegetarian eaters showed a slightly larger approach bias for vegetarian than for non-vegetarian food stimuli, this bias was of similar size to that observed in the omnivorous group. Most interestingly, vegetarian eaters' approach bias towards non-vegetarian food pictures also did not differ from that of the omnivorous group, despite vegetarians rating those pictures as much less pleasant. Our findings suggest that approach biases towards food items are quite robust and do not rapidly change with dietary practice. However, despite approach biases often guiding behaviour, vegetarian eaters successfully withstand these implicit action tendencies and avoid non-vegetarian produce. Potential implications of this finding for the addiction literature are discussed.

中文翻译：

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害怕香肠：在年轻女性素食者样本中对非素食食物图像的稳健方法偏见

先前的研究表明，人类对食物相关项目表现出一种隐含的方法偏见，这种偏见受到饥饿和所展示食物的特性（例如它们的适口性和卡路里含量）的调节。然而，人们对食物偏好和/或饮食选择是否以及如何调节这种方法偏差知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们使用人体模型刺激 - 反应相容性任务比较了一组年轻的女性杂食动物和素食者对素食和非素食食品图像的接近回避偏差。虽然素食者对素食者的接近偏差比非素食者的食物刺激略大，但这种偏差与杂食组观察到的偏差大小相似。最有趣的是，素食者的 对非素食食物图片的方法偏见也与杂食组没有区别，尽管素食者认为这些图片不那么令人愉快。我们的研究结果表明，对食物项目的方法偏见非常强大，并且不会随着饮食习惯而迅速改变。然而，尽管方法偏见经常指导行为，素食者成功地承受了这些隐含的行为倾向并避免非素食产品。讨论了这一发现对成瘾文献的潜在影响。素食者成功地抵御了这些隐含的行为倾向，并避免了非素食产品。讨论了这一发现对成瘾文献的潜在影响。素食者成功地抵御了这些隐含的行为倾向，并避免了非素食产品。讨论了这一发现对成瘾文献的潜在影响。