The Relationship Between Food Categorisation Biases, Restrictive Eating and Dieting Success in Women with a Low to Healthy BMI

First evidence shows that patients with AN were faster to categorise food in terms of calorie content (categorisation bias) and slower to reclassify food -that was initially categorised in terms of calorie content- in terms of tastiness (reclassification bias), relative to a comparison group without an eating disorder. The current study set out to examine whether the categorisation bias and the reclassification bias are implicated in restrictive eating and/or successful dieting behaviour.

Participants were 73 women with a low to healthy BMI, recruited via Prolific. Participants completed questionnaires assessing demographic information, restrictive eating, dieting success and eating disorder symptoms followed by a food categorisation task in which they categorised food in terms of calorie content or tastiness.

Only the categorisation bias, and not the reclassification bias, was found to be a significant unique predictor of restrictive eating. Neither bias measure significantly predicted dieting success or general eating disorder symptoms.

This pattern of findings suggests that speeded categorisation of food in terms of calorie content is specifically related to restrictive eating behaviour. Critically, these findings provide justification for evaluating whether manipulating this bias in restrictive eaters with a low to healthy BMI serves to impact food intake.