The Effects Of Evaluative Conditioning On Chocolate Attitudes And Intake

Evaluative Conditioning (EC for short) refers to a change in the valence of a stimulus that is due to the pairing of that stimulus with another positive or negative stimulus. Most studies on EC had focused on explicit and implicit attitudes’change but not on subsequent behaviors’change. In this study, we examined whether individuals’ preferences for high-calorie (using chocolate as a representative) foods, as indexed by measures of explicit and implicit attitudes and chocolate intake, can be influenced through an EC procedure, and whether changes in behavior were mediated by changes in explicit or implicit attitudes.The design of the study included valance (positively vs. negatively conditioned CSs) as a two-level within-subject factor. A total of 88 female participants were randomly assigned to the chocolate-positive group or the chocolate-negative group. There were mainly two parts in this study, the first part were some computer programs, including the evaluative conditioning procedure, the measurement of explicit attitude, the measurement of implicit attitude (IAT) and the measurement of contingency awareness, all of these procedures were coded with the E-Prime 2.0. The second part were all questionnaires, including the chocolate assessment questionnaire and the supplementary questionnaire.Conclusions:(1) There was a significant effect for the conditioning variable, participants in the chocolate-positive group had both a higher explicit attitude score and a higher IAT score than participants in the chocolate-negative group. The EC effects were larger for the explicit attitude than for the implicit attitude.(2) The EC procedure had significant effects on chocolate intake behavior, with those in the chocolate-positive group consumed more chocolate than those in the chocolate-negative group.(3) The explicit attitude toward chocolate could explained unique variance in chocolate intake behavior.(4) The effect of the EC procedure on chocolate intake behavior was mediated by changes in explicit attitude.