RESEARCH_FILE
Jörg Westenhöfer
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
Known for:Large-scale survey work distinguishing rigid from flexible dietary control, linking rigid all-or-nothing restraint styles to higher binge eating rates and more pronounced what-the-hell effect responses
Key findings
- 1991
Westenhöfer's survey of dietary control styles found that rigid restraint — all-or-nothing rules with no planned exceptions — predicted higher binge eating rates, while flexible restraint that permitted occasional indulgence did not, providing structural evidence that how a rule is framed, not the food it targets, determines vulnerability to the what-the-hell effect. Dietary Restraint and Disinhibition: Is Restraint a Homogeneous Construct? ↗