Implicit and explicit attitudes of young people with type 1 diabetes towards high-fat and high-sugar foods

• Main Author: Sandiford, Michelle Ann
• Published: University of Birmingham 2008
• Subjects: 150; BF Psychology
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.583084

This study examined whether there were differences between the implicit and explicit attitudes of young people with diabetes (n=22) and without diabetes (n=30) towards the fat and sugar content of foods. It also explored whether these attitudes were associated with the healthy eating behaviours of young people with diabetes. The traditional Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee & Schwartz, 1998) and the Avoid-Approach IAT (de Houwer, Custers & deClercq, 2006) were respectively used to explore relative implicit liking and wanting for high-fat foods/high-sugar foods over their low-fat alternatives. Results suggest that priming effects based on novel aspects of foods lead to differences in implicit wanting for high-fat foods between groups. Results from the explicit measures suggest that individuals with diabetes are more easily primed by the palatability of foods compared to controls. Implicit preferences for high-fat foods were incongruently related to healthy eating. The limitations of this study and its potential impact on clinical practice are discussed.