We recruited 108 university students (46%male, 54% female) to participate
in a pair of studies about “Consumer Activism” and “Body
Image” for which they received course credit. In the consumer activism
study, respondents were given 10 min to complete a questionnaire.
They were simultaneously presented with a bowl containing packages
of M&Ms and were told, “Help yourself to any candy that you want —
we have tons”. Each participant completed this part of the study in isolation
from others. After 10 min, the questionnaire and the bowl of
M&Ms were removed, and amount consumed recorded.
The design was a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design, the three factors
being partitioning, manipulated diet-consciousness, and measured
diet-consciousness. Partitioning was manipulated by providing respondents
with 200 g of M&Ms either in a single (1 × 200 g) plastic ziplock
bag or divided between four bags (4 × 50g). To manipulate dietconsciousness,
we followed DPZ asking respondents to first complete
a body image questionnaire comprising Herman and Polivy's (1980)
10-item Dietary Restraint scale, two items from the Oliver and
Bearden (1985) Dieting Questionnaire, 16 items making up the Body