FOOD STIMULI AND GENDER

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French, & Jefsery, 1999; Pingitore, Spring, & Garfieldt, 1997). These issues are seen as a
motivational factor that influences their food choices (Rolls et al., 1991).
The results in general without distinction by gender suggest that low-calorie stimuli
receive greater attention when the following conditions are met:
•

Stronger attitudes about the effectiveness of a healthy diet

•

Greater appreciation for a healthy diet

•

Practicing a healthy diet

•

Consumption of a healthy, low-fat diet.

However, as the results are divided by gender, the correlations were not as strong in
the group of women as the group of men. For women only significant negative correlations
were found between high-calorie stimuli and practicing a healthy diet and consumption of a
healthy, low-fat diet.
As Schröder (2003) said, “attitudes are learned predispositions” (Schröder, 2003). In
the current study, these predispositions seem to have influenced attention response to the
food stimuli presented. Another gender difference observed was that no correlations
between the EGE questionnaire variables and the visit count eye-tracking measure were
found for men. However, five significant correlations were found for women.
The results of the FEV I questionnaire showed a higher mean value for the three
variables cognitive restraint of eating, emotional eating and external determined eating for
women compared to men. However, a significant statistical difference at p-value < 0.05 was
only found for cotnitive restraint of eating and emotional eating. Thus, these two properties
appear to be significantly more pronounced in women than men. These results are consistent
with previous studies in which women also appear to be more restrictive and emotional
eaters (Heaven et al., 2001; Provencher et al., 2003). This information suggests that