Degree Type

Honors Capstone Project

Date of Submission

Spring 5-1-2007

Capstone Advisor

Shelley Aikman, Ph.D

Honors Reader

Meera Adya, J.D., Ph.D.

Capstone Major

Psychology

Capstone College

Arts and Science

Audio/Visual Component

no

Capstone Prize Winner

no

Won Capstone Funding

no

Honors Categories

Social Sciences

Subject Categories

Other Psychology | Psychology | Social Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of hunger on attitudes (self-reports and corresponding reaction times) toward foods and non-foods (people). Participants rated their attitudes toward pictures of foods and pictures of people (older and younger males and females) along several evaluative scales (global attitudes and attitudinal bases) while reaction times were recorded. This was done twice (once when hungry, once not), in sessions separated by one week. Consistent with previous research, hunger differentially impacted ratings of the information underlying attitudes. For example, for foods, ratings of negative affect information changed more as a function of hunger than ratings of other bases. The expected effect of hunger on practice effects was also significant, with participants having greater practice effects when they were not hungry in the first session than participants who were hungry in the first session. Findings from this study may help us understand how hunger has the potential to impact how we perceive and interact with our worlds.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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