PERCEPTIONS OF WOMEN RELATED TO FOOD CHOICE

Male and female subjects (predominately white) provided impression rat ings of body shape, personality traits, and total caloric consumption for a female target based on her preference for a low fat or high fat diet. Results showed that meal type significantly affected impression ratings: the target who preferred low fat foods was viewed more favora bly than the one who preferred high fat fare. Compared with male subje cts, female subjects perceived the target who preferred a high fat die t to be significantly less conscientious. Males were significantly mor e accurate than females in their caloric estimations of targets' total daily consumption. The results will be discussed in terms of the soci al pressure on women to restrict not only their weight to acceptable l evels, but their food consumption as well.