Visceral States Call for Visceral Measures: Verbal Overshadowing of Hunger Ratings Across Assessment Modalities.

TitleVisceral States Call for Visceral Measures: Verbal Overshadowing of Hunger Ratings Across Assessment Modalities.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsCreswell KG, Sayette MA, Schooler JW, Wright AGC, Pacilio LE
JournalAssessment
Volume25
Issue2
Pagination173-182
Date Published04/2016
ISSN1552-3489
Abstract

We introduce a nonverbal "visceral" measure of hunger (i.e., squeezing a handheld dynamometer) and provide the first evidence of verbal overshadowing effects in this visceral domain. We presented 106 participants with popcorn and recorded their hunger levels in one of three conditions: (1) first report hunger using a traditional self-report rating scale (i.e., verbal measure) and then indicate hunger by squeezing a dynamometer (i.e., nonverbal measure), (2) first indicate hunger nonverbally and then indicate hunger verbally, or (3) indicate hunger only nonverbally. As hypothesized, nonverbal measures of hunger predicted subsequent eating behavior when they were uncontaminated by verbal measures-either because they preceded verbal measures of hunger or because they were the sole measure of hunger. Moreover, nonverbal measures of hunger were a better predictor of eating behavior than verbal measures. Implications of the study for communicating embodied experiences in a way that escapes the confines of symbolic representations are discussed.

DOI10.1177/1073191116645910
Alternate JournalAssessment
PubMed ID27121082
Grant ListL30 AA022509 / AA / NIAAA NIH HHS / United States
L30 MH101760 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
R01 CA184779 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States