How eating behavior, food stimuli and gender may affect visual attention - An eye tracking study

The aim of the current study was to examine how different patterns of eating behavior and visual attention to different food cues are related to each other while taken gender into account. The German version of the DEBQ was used to examine three eating behavior patterns (restrained, emotional and external eating) and mobile eye tracking technology was used to measure visual attention to different food cues in an experimental setting. Results showed a strong evidence for the influence of restrained eating behavior on visual attention. Furthermore, men who exhibited higher levels of restrained eating behavior also showed higher attention towards low calorie food cues. Emotional eating seemed to be linked to visual attention in women. Women with higher levels of emotional eating also manifested higher visual attention to food cues, as measured by fixations per dwell. The current study adds to the literature on the relation between eating behavior and visual attention by highlighting potential gender differences.