Jutta Mata, Mattea Dallacker, Tobias Vogel, Ralph Hertwig
The role of attitudes in diet, eating, and body weight

Pp. 67-91 in: Dolores Albarracin, Blair T. Johnson (Eds.): Applications. 2nd ed. 2019. New York: Routledge
[Handbook of Attitudes; 2]

Eating is essential to our ability to live. Just like breathing, humans need to eat. But unlike breathing, eating serves purposes beyond the satisfaction of physiological needs. Eating means also pleasure, expression of cultural, religious, or political values, the appreciation of the fellowship of other diners, and—for most people—the recurrent activity that promotes the spending of time with family, friends, and colleagues (e.g., Larson, Nelson, Neumark-Sztainer, Story, & Hannan, 2009; Sobal & Nelson, 2003). The goal of this chapter is to explore and describe the role of attitudes for dietary choices, eating behaviors, and a key health consequence that is tightly intertwined with diet and eating, body weight.