The processing of threat-related information in female dieters and non-dieters

Abstract

It has been suggested that bulimic attitudes and behaviours serve the function of reducing awareness, especially where a situation is perceived as threatening. Considering a non-clinical population of female dieters and non-dieters, this study tested the prediction that a higher level of bulimic attitudes would be associated with an attentional bias to`threat' information. Using a Stroop task, interference in the colour-naming of`threat' information was positively and signi®cantly associated with the level of bulimic attitudes in dieters only. This ®nding supported`escape from awareness' models of bulimia. *