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Embodied Metaphors and Emotions in the Moralization of Restrained Eating Practices
Sana Sheikh
Lucia Botindari
Emma White
University of St Andrews
running head: Embodied Metaphors, Emotions, and Restrained Eating
emails: [email protected]
mailing address: Sana Sheikh
School of Psychology
St. Mary’s College
University of St. Andrews
Fife, United Kingdom KY16 9AP
word count: 3,914
keywords: morality, emotion, restrained eating, embodied metaphors
ABSTRACT
Moralization is the process whereby preferences are converted to values (Rozin, 1999). Two
studies used an embodied metaphor approach, in which moral metaphors are grounded in
one’s sense of physical cleanliness, to investigate whether restrained eating practices are
moralized among women. Specifically, we predicted that the regulation of food intake by
women is embodied in their feelings of physical cleanliness. Study 1 found that failures of
restrained eating (i.e., overeating) increased accessibility of physical cleanliness-related
words for women, but not men. Study 2 found that increased negative moral emotions fully
mediated the effect of overeating on a desire for physical cleanliness. Overall, the studies
argue for the importance of morality in restrained eating and in the central role of emotions in
the embodiment of cognitive metaphors.
“As society at large slipped off the constraints of traditional religious morality, the old moral
code—diminished in scope, more constricted than ever, but functionally unchanged—
tightened on women’s bodies.” –Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth (italics added)
Moralization “converts preferences into values” (Rozin, 1999, p. 67), imbuing
behaviors with certain psychological properties and, according to recent work on embodied
metaphors, a feeling of physical cleanliness. Behaviours such as eating practices have been
moralized across many historical contexts: for instance, vegetarianism has been moralized
among practicing Hindus as part of Ahimsa for centuries while more recently the production
and consumption of locally grown and sustainable foods is increasingly viewed through a
moral lens in the United States. Another eating practice that has risen sharply during the
latter half of the 20th century and increasingly across the world (see Nasser, Katzman, &
Gordon, 2001) is the strict monitoring and restriction of food intake among women. And
although at first glance restrained eating practices seem to be motivated by adherence to
“conventional” cultural standards of beauty and thinness, we believe that it has also taken on
moral psychological properties.
Moralization and Metaphors
Bodily concepts such as physical balance, force, and cleanliness are extended by
metaphor to understand and give meaning to more abstract concepts of time, power, and
morality, respectively (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). For instance, Johnson (1987) gives the
example of “the force of an argument.” Here, the concept of force is used metaphorically, but
Johnson keenly notes that a metaphorical force is actually understood and given meaning by
us through our understanding of physical force placed on our bodies.
Similarly, Zhong and
Liljenquist (2006) showed that our understanding of morality is grounded in our sense of
physical cleanliness. In their studies, the authors found that cleaning one’s hands bolstered
one’s moral self-image and that a threat to one’s morality increased the desire to physically
clean oneself. Specifically, participants recalling an unethical deed showed increased mental
accessibility of cleansing-related words and increased desirability of cleanliness-related
products such as antiseptic wipes. The authors conclude that moral failures render
participants with a desire to literally “wash away their sins.”
Moralization of a particular behavior affixes relevant successes and failures of that
behavior to our feelings of physical cleanliness. If failure to abide by certain eating practices
induces a desire for physical cleanliness, there is good reason to believe that these practices
are moralized.
Restrained Eating Among Women
Restrained eating, the strict regulation of type and amount of food (Herman & Polivy,
1980), has become increasingly prevalent among women. Examples of restrained eating
include chronic or continuous dieting and, to a much more pathological extent, eating
disorders such as anorexia nervosa. Much of the research on restrained eating has focused on
the influence of cultural standards on women’s food intake (e.g., Striegel-Moore, Silberstein,
& Rodin, 1986) showing, for instance, that media messages towards women largely
emphasize weight consciousness, restricted food and caloric intake, and idealized standards
of female thinness and emaciation (e.g., Greenberg & Worrell, 2005; Quart, 2003; Smith,
2004). These cultural standards promote disordered eating (Striegel-Moore et al., 1986),
greater efforts in dieting and restricting food intake (Herman & Polivy, 1975; 1980), body
dissatisfaction (Davison & McCabe, 2005; Greenwood & Pietromonaco, 2003), and selfobjectification (Huon & Brown, 1984; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) among women.
Naomi Wolf (1991), in her analysis of these cultural standards, showed that the
messages promoting restrained eating “reverberate with reference to religious ideas of
temptation and sin” (p. 88). For example, she notes the prevalence of deserts being referred to
as “sinful,” “indulgences,” “temptations” and dieting in terms of “following” or “cheating
on” it. Detox regiments claim to cleanse the body of food toxins--part of what Wolf called
the “Cycle of Purification.” If, according to an embodied perspective, metaphors are not
solely cognitive abstractions but are grounded in our bodily experiences, equating certain
types of eating with “sin” may serve more than rhetorical purposes: these messages may
highlight the moralization of restrained eating whereby failures of restrained eating are
perceived by women as moral failures, thereby embodied in their feelings of physical
cleanliness.
Moral Metaphors and Emotions: A potential mechanism?
Subjective feelings are central to any embodied cognition account. For instance,
recounting an unethical deed induces feelings of physical impurity (Zhong & Liljenquist,
2006). These feelings of physical impurity likely entail painful recognitions of moral failure,
as manifested by negative moral emotions, which may be what drives the desire for
subsequent physical cleanliness. Emotions have long been acknowledged as motivators of
our desires and actions, especially those concerning morality (Hume, 1777/1960). Although
past literature on embodied cognition has yet to identify the mechanisms regulating the desire
for physical cleanliness, we suspect emotional responses to threats to our morality play a
central role.
In fact, the presence of moral emotions has been found among those high in restrained
eating practices. Overeating has been found to induce shame, guilt, anger, and disgust
towards oneself (e.g., Costanzo, Reichmann, Friedman, & Musante, 2001) and disordered
eating is linked with these particular emotions (e.g., Fox & Froom, 2009; Sanftner, Barlow,
Marschall, & Tangney, 1995; Troop, Treasure, & Serpell, 2002; von Ranson, Stevenson,
Cannon & Shah, 2009; Waller, Babbs, Milligan, Meyer, Ohanian, & Leung, 2003).
Moreover, the literature on emotional eating also indicates the importance of emotions in the
precursors and consequences of overeating. We would thus expect that failures of restrained
eating practices for women would incur negative moral emotional responses, underpinning an
embodied desire for cleanliness.
Present Studies
The following studies used an embodied metaphor account to investigate the
moralization of restrained eating practices. We expected failures of restrained eating, such as
overeating, to induce a desire for physical cleanliness for women in particular. We also
investigated the role of emotions in the embodiment of cognitive metaphors and expected that
negative moral emotions felt after overeating drive the subsequent desire for physical
cleanliness.
Study 1
Study 1 tested whether restrained eating practices are moralized and thus grounded in
experiences of physical cleanliness. We expected overeating to incur a desire to physically
cleanse, and, given past research showing women as primary targets of cultural messages
regarding restrained eating, we expected this effect to occur for women but not for men.
Method
Participants
A total of 100 participants from the University of St Andrews took part in the study,
50 of whom identified themselves as women and 50 as men. There were 56 who identified
themselves as White, 25 South Asian, 8 East Asian, 8 as “Other”.
Materials
Overeating Recall Task: Participants were randomly assigned to either an overeating
recall task condition or a no-task control condition. The overeating recall task activated
thoughts of one’s failure to restrict eating by asking participants to recount a time when they
ate too much. Specifically, participants were asked to think back to a time when they ate too
much and describe that experience in as much detail as possible.
Word Completion Task: Three word fragments developed by Zhong and Liljenquist
(2006) to measure mental accessibility of cleansing-related words were used as an indicator
of participants’ subsequent desire for physical cleanliness. These words could be completed
with either a cleansing-related or non-cleansing-related word (e.g., SH - - ER; “shower” or
“shiver”) and were interspersed with three neutral filler word fragments.
The Word Completion Task was given immediately after the Overeating Recall Task.
Participants were then given a brief demographics questionnaire, fully debriefed, and thanked
for their participation.
Results
A two-way analysis of variance yielded a main effect for condition, F(1, 96) = 4.64, p
= .03, such that the cleansing-related words were generated more in the overeating condition
(M = .90, SD = .76) than control condition (M = .58, SD = .73). However, the main effect
was qualified by a significant condition X gender interaction, F(1, 96) = 5.42, p = .04 (see
Figure 1). Here, women generated more cleansing-related words after recounting a time they
ate too much (M = 1.12, SD = .86) compared to women in the control (M = .46, SD = .66),
F(1, 96) = 4.85, p = .03. However, men in the overeating condition (M = .66, SD = .57) did
not differ from those in the control condition (M= .69, SD = .78), F(1, 90) = .41, p = ns.
Moreover, the women in the overeating condition generated more cleansing-related words
than the men in the overeating condition, F(1, 96) = 4.23, p = .04. Women in the control
condition did not differ significantly from the men in the control condition, F(1, 96) = 1.01, p
= ns. Nor was there a significant main effect of gender on accessibility of cleansing-related
words, F(1, 96) = .41, p = ns.
Our bodily responses to moral violations involve a desire for physical cleanliness; as
such, women who recalled a time they “ate too much” displayed an increased accessibility of
cleansing-related words. These findings provide the first evidence for the moralization of
restrained eating practices among women: overeating is felt as a moral failure requiring
absolution, which then results in a desire for physical cleanliness.
As a follow-up, Study 2 investigated the role of emotions in the embodiment of moral
metaphors and whether negative moral emotions incurred by moral failures, such as
overeating (for women), drive the desire for physical cleanliness.
Study 2
Moral emotions are often painful recognitions of transgressions and have been found
to regulate people’s sense of morality (Sheikh & Janoff-Bulman, 2010). Just as cognitive
metaphors are felt by their physical embodiment, these recognitions of transgressions are felt
as negative moral emotional experiences—from an embodied and phenomenological
perspective, both provide meaning to our cognitive reasoning and judgments. As such, we
expect the emotional responses after a moral failure to underpin the desire for physical
cleanliness.
Given that morality involves a set of complex psychological processes, we do not
expect one emotion category in particular to drive the effect of moral failure of desire for
physical cleanliness. In fact, research by Zhong and colleagues (Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006;
Zhong, Strejcek, & Sivanathan, 2010; Liljenquist, Zhong, & Galinsky, 2010) found that the
embodiment of moral metaphors involves a diverse set of moral psychological and behavioral
processes, including one’s moral self-image, harsher judgments of others, and increased
prosocial behaviour. Thus feeling physically dirty as a result of a moral failure likely entails a
host of painful moral emotions, including shame, guilt, disgust, and anger towards oneself.
Indeed, all of these emotions have been found to be related to restrained and disordered
eating (e.g., Fox & Froom, 2009; Sanftner, Barlow, Marschall, & Tangney, 1995; Troop,
Treasure, & Serpell, 2002; von Ranson, Stevenson, Cannon & Shah, 2009; Waller, Babbs,
Milligan, Meyer, Ohanian, & Leung, 2003).
Study 2 tested whether negative moral emotional responses mediate the effect of
overeating for women on a desire for physical cleanliness. As a secondary purpose, Study 2
also made sure the findings from Study 1 were not a function of merely focusing women on
their bodies. In other words, we wanted to ensure that any effects found are not because of
any semantic priming of body-related words but instead specifically due to the moral impact
of overeating on a desire for physical cleanliness.
Method
Participants
A total of 112 women from the University of St Andrews participated as part of an
online study. There were 92 women who considered themselves as White, 7 as South Asian,
7 as East Asian, 1 as Latina, and 5 as “Other”.
Materials
Overeating Recall Task: Similar to Study 1, participants were randomly assigned to
either an overeating recall task condition or a control condition. Participants completing the
overeating recall task were again asked to recount a time when they ate too much. This time,
participants in the control condition were asked to describe an ordinary day.
Negative Moral Emotions: To assess state negative moral emotions, participants in
both conditions were asked, “When you think about this experience, how do you feel?”
Single items assessed how ashamed, guilty, angry, and disgusted they felt on a 5-point scale
(from 1 = “not at all” to 5 = “extremely”).
Cleansing Products Forced-Choice Task: Following Zhong and Liljenquist (2006), we
used a forced-choice measure to assess desire for physical cleanliness. The measure asked
participants to pick a product shown on the screen that they found most desirable. These
items were two cleansing products, a packet of “wipe-n-go” general cleansing wipes and antibacterial hand-gel, as well as one non-cleansing product, a pen. As a forced-choice measure,
participants were only allowed to pick one of the three products as “most desirable.” Two
cleansing products were included to rule out the possibility that the effect found in Study 1
was due to a mere focus on the body, which, in this study, would render women in the
overeating condition more likely to pick the hand-gel over and above the “wipe-n-go” and the
pen. However, a desire for physical cleanliness as a result of overeating would result in no
significant differences between the two cleansing products; both would be chosen over and
above the neutral pen.
After completing the Overeating Recall Task (or neutral task), responding about their
state negative moral emotions, and choosing the product they found most desirable,
participants filled out a brief demographic questionnaire and then were provided a full written
debriefing and thanked for their participation.
Results
A chi-square found overall differences between conditions and product choice, χ2 =
6.81 (df = 2), p = .05. As a follow-up analysis, we conducted a logistic regression with
condition as a predictor and product choice as the nominal outcome variable. We expected a
difference between the general cleansing wipes and the pen if the effect was due to a desire
for cleanliness, but a difference between the hand-gel and the general cleansing wipes if the
effect was due to body-related semantics. A nominal logistic regression found that the
difference between the general cleansing wipes and pen chosen was higher after the
participants had to recall a time they ate too much, (B = -.89, SD = .46, p = .05) and the
difference between the hand-gel and pen chosen was higher after recalling a time they ate too
much (B = -1.32, SD = .65, p = .04). However, there was no difference between the
proportion of hand-gels versus general cleansing wipes chosen as a function of condition,
(B= .44, SD= .72, p = ns). These findings show two things: (1) we replicated findings from
Study 1, and (2) the effect found in Study 1 was not due to priming of body-related words;
rather, recalling a time one ate too much seems to enact a desire for physical cleanliness.
To test whether negative emotions mediated the effect between recalling a time one
ate too much and a desire for cleanliness, we ran a mediational analysis by collapsing general
cleansing cloths and hand-gel together to form a dichotomous outcome: cleansing product
versus neutral. We predicted that negative emotions experienced mediate the impact of
overeating on a desire for cleanliness. The mediational analysis used the four steps specified
by Baron and Kenny (1986). In Step 1, recalling a time one ate too much led to choosing a
cleansing product over a neutral one (B = -.98, SE = .41, p = .02). In Step two, recalling a
time one ate too much incurred greater negative emotions compared to a control (B = -.97, SE
= .17, p < .001). In Step 3, reported moral emotions predicted choosing a cleansing product
over a neutral product, (B = -.50, SE = .24, p = .04) while condition no longer significantly
predicted choice of product (B = -.50, SE = .47, p = ns.). A Sobel test indicated that elicited
moral emotions significantly mediated the effect of overeating on choosing a cleansing
product (Z = 1.94, SD = .25, p = .05).1 In other words, negative moral emotional responses
drove the impact of overeating on a desire for physical cleanliness.
Discussion
Two studies found that restrained eating practices are moralized for women. In
particular, Study 1 found that overeating increased accessibility of physical cleanlinessrelated words among women, but not men. Moreover, Study 2 found that negative moral
emotions incurred as a result of overeating drove the subsequent desire for physical
cleanliness. Using an embodied metaphor perspective, the psychological study of
moralization can go beyond our traditional notions of what moral ought entails—and
investigate the moral nature of every day injunctions that we place upon ourselves.
The two studies are just the first step in understanding the moralization of restrained
eating practices and their consequences. We started by focusing on failures at restricting the
amount of food intake (i.e., overeating). But there are other failures of restrained eating
practices involving not only the amount--but also type--of food that may also be grounded in
our feelings of cleanliness.
We found an effect of gender in Study 1, which makes sense given the feminist and
sociocultural literature on restrained eating and eating disorders shows that messages
concerning restrained food intake as well as idealized images of feminine thinness and
emaciation target women in particular. Interestingly, however, this isn’t the only case of
moralization of restrained eating practices. Religious asceticism almost always equate
inhibiting food intake with a sense of moral purity. Fasting in many religions, such as in
Islam during the month of Ramadan and Catholicism during Lent, is understood as a sign of
devotion and morality. We would expect then for these forms of restrained eating to also be
embodied through physical cleanliness.
The two studies also provide insight into the role of emotional responses in the
embodiment of cognitive metaphors. Given that emotions are evaluations of ourselves and
the world around us, the negative moral emotions elicited by overeating entail some
recognition of a moral failure. This recognition is necessary for any subsequent desire for
physical cleanliness. More interestingly, emotions are felt evaluations entailing both cognitive
and bodily experiences, providing meaning to our cognitive appraisals and judgments. It
would then make sense that these bodily feelings of moral failure—as manifested in Study 2
by feelings of shame, guilt, disgust, and anger at oneself--are what regulate moral metaphors
of cleanliness. The role of emotional experiences in the embodiment of cognition and
cognitive metaphors is an exciting and potentially fruitful avenue for future work.
ENDNOTES
1. None of the emotions alone mediated the effect of overeating condition on cleansing
product choice.
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