Stroop interference for food- and body-related words: a meta-analysis Linda Johansson a, * , Ata Ghaderi a , Gerhard Andersson b a Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Box 1225, SE-751 42 Uppsala, Sweden b Department of Behavioural Sciences, Linko ¨ping University, Sweden Received 24 June 2004; accepted 29 November 2004 Abstract According to cognitive theories of eating disorders, biased information processing in favour of dysfunctional attitudes about food and body appearance plays a vital role in the development and maintenance of such disorders. Data from 27 studies evaluating Stroop interference for food- and body-related words with negative overtones were included in a meta-analysis in order to investigate whether such processing biases are specific to eating disordered samples. Participants were females characterised as eating disordered, non-eating disordered but nevertheless over-concerned with body appearance and eating, and normal controls. Mean Stroop interference for eating disordered females was of medium effect size (Cohen’s d =0.48) and significantly larger than for both non- eating disordered females concerned with body appearance and eating, and normal control females (both d =0.21). Stroop interference for eating disordered females was thus of fairly modest magnitude where it was unclear whether such interference is specific to this sample. D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Stroop interference; Attentional bias 1. Introduction Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, are characterised by disturbed eating behaviour and overvalued attitudes about body weight and shape for self-worth (American Psychiatric 1471-0153/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2004.11.001 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +46 18 4715751; fax: +46 18 4712123. E-mail address: Linda.Johansson@psyk.uu.se (L. Johansson). Eating Behaviors 6 (2005) 271 – 281