Abstract

This study investigated whether regulatory focus and social comparison could predict healthy eating intention. The Theory of Planned Behavior explained eating intention and healthy and unhealthy food photos from social networking sites, along with an androgynous target were used to induce feelings of similarity. Participants were randomly assigned to four surveys. Using a regression, it was found that healthy eating intention was predicted by promotion focus. However, social comparison did not yield significance. We found that although there was a significant relationship between promotion focus and healthy eating intention, it did not matter if the participant felt similar to the target, nor did it matter whether the participant received an upward or downward comparison target. This is an important topic to study because eating behavior can affect peoples quality of life depending on if they eat healthy or unhealthy.

Keywords

Eating behavior, intention, social comparison.

Document Type

Thesis

Year of Completion

2018

Major

Psychology

Advisor

Dr. Nancy Frye

Academic Department

Psychology

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