This study tested whether exposure to food-related (vs. non-food related) TV content would increase unhealthy food choices in unsuccessful restrained eaters (i.e., chronic dieters with low perceived self-regulatory success; PSRS), decrease unhealthy food choices in successful restrained eaters (i.e., chronic dieters with high PSRS), and would not affect food choices in unrestrained eaters (i.e., non-dieters). As such, we attempted to (1) explain previous mixed findings on behavioral effects of exposure to food-related TV content, and (2) generalize previous findings on successful and unsuccessful restrained and unrestrained eaters’ differential reactivity to isolated food cues (e.g., food words) to food cues embedded in TV content. In a one-factorial between-subjects experiment, participants viewed a cooking segment in which high-calorie cakes were prepared (n = 50) or a non-food segment (n = 62) of a TV show. The percentage of unhealthy (vs. healthy) food choices in a computerized choice task served as dependent variable. Eating restraint and PSRS were measured afterwards. In contrast to the hypothesis, no three-way interaction between TV content, eating restraint, and PSRS on the percentage of unhealthy food choices was found. However, it was found that overall, people with lower levels of PSRS made a higher percentage of unhealthy food choices compared to people with higher levels of PSRS. Contrasting findings from previous research using isolated food cues, this study showed no evidence of unsuccessful restrained eaters’ heightened susceptibility to food cues in TV content, possibly explained by a lower salience of or attention to food cues.

这项研究测试了与食物相关（相对于与非食物相关）电视内容的暴露是否会增加不成功的受限制饮食者（即，自我调节成功率较低的慢性节食者； PSRS）是否会增加成功选择不健康食物的选择禁食者（例如，PSRS高的慢性饮食者），并且不会影响饮食不拘禁者（即非饮食者）的食物选择。因此，我们试图（1）解释先前关于食物相关电视内容暴露行为影响的混合发现，以及（2）概括先前关于成功和不成功的受约束和不受约束的食客对孤立食物线索的差异反应的先前发现（例如，食物字词）嵌入电视内容中的食物线索。在一个因果关系的实验中，n  = 50）或 电视节目中的非食品部分（n = 62）。在计算机化选择任务中，不健康（相对健康）食物选择的百分比用作因变量。随后测量饮食约束和PSRS。与该假设相反，电视内容，饮食限制和PSRS之间在不健康食品选择的百分比上没有三方面的相互作用。但是，发现总体上，与PSRS含量较高的人相比，PSRS含量较低的人选择不健康食品的比例更高。与以前使用隔离食品提示的研究结果相反，该研究表明没有证据表明受限制的食客对电视内容中的食品提示的敏感性增强，这可能是由于对食品提示的重视程度或关注度较低所致。