CAREER: Attention Related Health Cognitions as a Chronic Stressor

Obesity has steadily risen in the United States and about half of Americans report having negative experiences related to their body weight. In response, people pay more attention to the world around them to identify and avoid future negative interactions related to their body weight. Although increases in attention to body weight are meant to protect the person, it may do the opposite by causing increases in stress and counterproductive behaviors. This NSF CAREER project examines whether increased attention to body weight causes physical changes in the body, psychological changes, and behavioral changes. This work is important because it identifies physical, psychological, and behavioral indices that can be targeted to help reduce obesity and support a physically active country. This research establishes attention related health cognitions as a chronic stressor with direct impacts on physiological, behavioral, and psychological outcomes. First, in three lab experiments, this work tests whether attention related health cognitions cause increases in stress and arousal hormones, changes in eating behavior, changes in emotionality, and increases in the perceived difficulty of moderate exercise. Next, using short-term longitudinal methods, this project evaluates whether attention related health cognitions first induce restrictive dieting behavior followed by overeating or binge eating behavior in the same day. It also tracks emotional changes that occur with body-related experiences and attention related health cognitions. Finally, this project has an integrated education plan that creates opportunities to train outstanding emerging scientists in high school, college, and graduate school with new classes on behavioral health, opportunities to engage in firsthand research, and benefits from evidence-based mentoring strategies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.