Obesity and risk taking. A male phenomenon

There is a growing tendency to regard overeating as an addiction, with obesity as its primary symptom. We propose that similar to other addictions, obesity is associated with excessive risk-taking in men, though not in women. To examine this suggestion we conducted two studies, one involving a sample of overweight and normal-weight students, and the other involving obese adults drawn from a dataset of health care clients, and a control sample of normal-weight adults. In both of these studies, we found that overweight and obese men took more risk in a laboratory task than normal-weight men, while overweight and obese women did not differ from normal-weight women in this respect. At the same time, obese women (but not overweight women) displayed higher impulsivity levels than normal-weight women. These findings shed light on the cognitive characteristics of obesity in men, and accent the importance of taking gender into account when developing research paradigms and treatment methods for obesity.

• We associate overweight and obesity in men with excessive risk-taking.
• In two studies, overweight and obese persons were compared to normal-weight controls.
• Overweight/obese men (but not women) took more risk than normal-weight controls.
• Consistent with previous studies, obese women (but not men) were highly impulsive.
• Findings illuminate the unique cognitive facets of overweight and obesity in men.