Emotional distress and disinhibited eating: The role of self

Dieters and nondieters were exposed to self-referent or non-self-referent mood induction procedures, and food intake was subsequently recorded. In Study I, both task failure and musical mood induction led to significantly increased eating among dieters. In Study 2, dieters and nondieters were exposed to sad or neutral music and half of the subjects were told that music might make them feel momentarily sad. The addition of an attributional label to the mood induction procedure eliminated the disinhibited eating that was observed in the unlabeled condition (for dieters). Study 3 demonstrated that only self-relevant negative mood disinhibits dieters. It is concluded that only those mood states that implicate the self promote self-regulatory failure. These results are discussed within the escape from self-awareness hypothesis of binge eating behavior.