Obesity and emotions: Differentiation in emotions felt towards food between obese, overweight and normal-weight adolescents

The current study examined variations in the emotional intensity felt towards food pictures as a function of the participants’ body mass index (BMI). A total of 111 adolescents were instructed to actually imagine eating 30 food products illustrated in a picture and to rate their emotions on a five-point scale. The results showed that emotional intensity felt towards foods was different between the three BMI groups. The intensity of the positive emotions aroused by palatable foods appeared to be stronger in the normal-weight than in the overweight participants, whereas the evaluation of these emotions did not differ between the obese and the normal-weight participants or between the obese and the overweight participants. The intensity of the negative emotions towards palatable foods was higher in the obese than in the overweight and normal-weight participants. For the non-palatable foods, the overweight participants’ negative emotional experiences were less pronounced than those of the normal-weight and obese participants.