Individual differences in selective attentional bias for healthy and unhealthy food-related stimuli and social identity as a vegan/vegetarian dissociate “healthy” and “unhealthy” orthorexia nervosa

• Published in: Appetite 2022-11, Vol.178, p.106261-106261, Article 106261
• Main Authors: Albery, Ian P., Shove, Emma, Bartlett, Georgina, Frings, Daniel, Spada, Marcantonio M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: anxiety; appetite; Attentional bias; cognition; dissociation; eating disorders; healthy diet; OCD; Orthorexia nervosa; Perfectionism; Slowed disengagement; social identification; vegan diet; Veganism/vegetarianism
• ISSN: 0195-6663; 1095-8304
• DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.106261

Previous work identified the operation of an attentional bias (AB) towards healthy food related stimuli among those with increasing tendencies towards orthorexia nervosa (ON) using a modified Stroop task. The current work aimed to replicate and extend our understanding of this effect by incorporating alternative measures of AB (i.e., the dot probe task) and ON (i.e., the Teruel Orthorexia Scale [ToS]) in a sample of self-defined vegans/vegetarians. The theoretical assertion of the ToS is the conceptual broadening of orthorexia with differentiable dimensions - one characterised as a “healthy” preoccupation with healthy food/eating patterns (HeOr) and the other by a more underlying pathology (OrNe). This study also aimed to examine the pattern of responding across these two dimensions according to factors known to predict ON. Eighty-six participants (mean age = 33.0 years; 20 males, 66 females) completed measures of obsessive compulsivity, perfectionism, state/trait anxiety and ToS as well as a dot probe designed to measure AB for healthy and unhealthy-related food stimuli, threat ratings of each of words utilized and perceived identity centrality as a vegan/vegetarianism. Results showed a dissociation of predicted determinants for “healthy” ON (HeOr) and pathological ON (OrNe). HeOr was predicted by increasing identity centrality whereas OrNe was predicted by increased OCD and perfectionism, and increased interference for healthy-related food words (in particular slowed disengagement) and not unhealthy related food words. Threat-related ratings of unhealthy food words was shown to be common across both dimensions. This pattern highlights cognitive and individual differences-based correlates of pathological and non-pathological ON.