Inspiring or dispiriting? The effect of diet commercials on snack food consumption in high school and college-aged women.

Objective: Recent research offers conflicting views of whether women high in dietary restraint are inspired or demoralized after viewing thin-ideal images. We conducted two studies to explore the impact of diet commercials featuring the thin-ideal image on snack food consumption.

Method: In Study 1, 91 high school women watched a sad movie interrupted with diet or neutral commercials.