There are many common stereotypes related to food consumption and eating behaviors that are considered indicative of one's personal character. Negative evaluations of an individual based on their eating behaviors may lead to stigmatization and other harmful psychosocial outcomes. Using vignette scenarios, we examined 582 participants' attitudes towards two target characters who exhibited bitter food dislike and high reward-based eating drive respectively. In open-ended text responses, participants were more likely to respond negatively and use stigmatizing language when describing the character with high reward-based eating drive versus the character with bitter food dislike. In addition, empathic responses depended on whether participants believed they, themselves, exhibited reward-based eating drive. Participants tended to be more empathetic and more positive towards the target who shared their own reward-based eating behaviors. Interestingly, the same was not true for those who shared bitter food distaste. These results suggest that eating behaviors that are perceived as more controllable and unusual may be more negatively perceived. Targeted education or support to reduce negative attitudes about such traits may be beneficial.

有许多与食物消费和饮食行为相关的常见刻板印象被认为反映了一个人的个人性格。基于个人饮食行为的负面评价可能会导致耻辱和其他有害的社会心理结果。我们使用小插曲场景，研究了 582 名参与者对两个目标角色的态度，这两个目标角色分别表现出不喜欢苦味食物和高奖励饮食驱动力。在开放式文本回复中，参与者在描述具有高奖励饮食驱动力的角色与不喜欢苦味食物的角色时，更有可能做出负面反应并使用侮辱性语言。此外，共情反应取决于参与者是否相信他们自己表现出基于奖励的饮食动力。参与者往往对分享自己基于奖励的饮食行为的目标更有同理心，也更积极。有趣的是，对于那些厌恶苦味食物的人来说，情况却并非如此。这些结果表明，被认为更可控和不寻常的饮食行为可能会被更负面地感知。有针对性的教育或支持以减少对这些特征的消极态度可能是有益的。