A Matter of Perspective: Reappraisal as a Tactic to Regulate Caloric Intake

Abstract

Background Adaptive emotion regulation strategies such as cognitive reappraisal have the capacity to ‘cool down’ negative feelings. The present research investigates the hypothesis that the cooling down capacity of reappraisal transcends to other ‘hot’ domains as well, such as the domain of eating palatable foods. Methods In two experiments anger was induced and participants reappraised their anger by viewing it from a third person perspective (reappraisal) or from their own perspective (control condition). Cognitive accessibility of eating enjoyment was assessed by a lexical decision task (Study 1) or caloric intake was assessed by a taste test (Study 2). Findings Results showed that relative to the control condition, reappraisal decreased cognitive accessibility of eating enjoyment and decreased caloric intake. Anger experience was not responsible for these findings. Discussion These findings imply that emotion regulation strategies with cooling down properties go beyond cooling down the affective domain, by dampening other ‘hot’ constructs as well.