Food Choice Among Individuals With an Eating Disorder Diagnosis

Total number of unhealthy food items selected

Total number of selected unhealthy food items across the 5 trials will be calculated. Unhealthy food items will be coded as items eligible for a WL or a red traffic light label for the task-specific nutrient e.g., red for salt in crisp trial.

Total calories, salt, sugar, fat, saturated fat from selected food items

Total number of calories, salt (g), sugar (g), fat (g), saturated fat (g) from selected food items across the 5 trials will be calculated.

Negative emotional response

To be assessed using an adapted four-item measure, previously used to assess responses to health warning labels regarding snack selection (Clarke et al., 2020). Responses will be conveyed using seven-point scales: 'How afraid/worried/uncomfortable/disgusted does the label on food make you feel about consuming a product? With scores ranging from 1 (not at all afraid/worried/uncomfortable/disgusted) to 7 (very afraid/worried/uncomfortable/disgusted). A mean average will be calculated for the four items.

Positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS)

Negative affect is to be assessed using the shortened version of PANAS (Mackinnon et al., 1999). Only the 5 items (afraid, upset, nervous, scared, distressed) that assess negative affect will be included pre and post the food choice task, as hypotheses relate to negative affect, whereas positive affect is not anticipated to be impacted by food labelling. 'How afraid/upset/nervous/scared/distressed do you feel right now?' Responses will be conveyed using Likert scale (1=Very slightly or not at all to 5= Extremely) based on the extent of which participant feels that emotion in a particular time frame (e.g., pre task and post task). Pre- and post- food choice task responses will be used to assess whether participants experience a change in negative emotion following exposure to the labels.

Reactance and avoidance

Two items will be taken from a 27-item scale developed for reactance to tobacco health warnings that were then used to assess responses to health warning labels regarding snack selection (Hall et al., 2016) (Clarke et al., 2020). Responses will be denoted using seven-point scales. Reactance: 'Are these labels annoying?'. Avoidance: 'Are you likely to avoid these labels?' With scores ranging from 1 (not annoying/not at all) to 7 (extremely annoying/very likely). Items will be scored separately.

Aim guessing

Aim-guessing question will be included to help researchers identify whether participants are aware of the true purpose of the study. If participants correctly guess the aim, they may alter their behaviour to align with what they think the researcher expects, introducing bias. One researcher will code awareness of aims and a second researcher will independently verify the coding.