A Janet Tomiyama
Biographic Data
| ID | 168911 |
|---|---|
| NAME | A Janet Tomiyama |
| GIVEN NAMES | A Janet |
| FAMILY NAME | Tomiyama |
| SIGNATURE | TOMIYAMA A J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Los Angeles |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2152-5813 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 58 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 201 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 58 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Striving and thriving: Gender differences in the effects of climbing the socioeconomic ladder on stress and discrimination
BACKGROUND: Recent evidence suggests upward socioeconomic mobility ("striving") may result in worse physical health. It has been hypothesized that striving might result in greater stress and discrimination, but prior observational evidence of this has been mixed. METHODS: We analyzed data from The RISE UP study, a natural experimental study of 1270 low-income students in Los Angeles who were offered entrance to high-performing charter high school…
Health Behaviors Are Moralized When Perceived to Cause Harm
People readily moralize health, whether by criticizing smokers or treating exercise as noble. Drawing from the theory of dyadic morality, we theorized that people moralize health most strongly when they perceive poor health as a source of suffering. Through five studies (total N = 2,055), we show that perceived harm can drive the moralization of health. We identified three types of harm—personal, interpersonal, and collective—that people perceive…
Weight stigma and mental health symptoms: Mediation by perceived stress
Prior research has established that weight stigma, or social devaluation based on an individual's body size or weight, is directly related to greater depressive and anxiety symptoms. In this investigation, we apply the Cyclic Obesity/Weight-Based Stigma model to investigate if the association between weight stigma and poor mental health is mediated by greater perceived stress. We analyzed data from a census-matched sample (N=1,993) of the U.S. on…
Behavioral medicine in the GLP-1 era
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist medications are receiving high levels of attention because of their dramatic efficacy in causing weight loss. This commentary discusses several ways that those in behavioral medicine and health psychology might think about these medications—whether they should be fully in support of them or whether they pose a risk. The positive aspects of GLP-1s include their great promise in improving health independent o…
Weight stigma as a stressor: A preliminary multi-wave, longitudinal study testing the biobehavioral pathways of the cyclic obesity/weight-based stigma (Cobwebs) model
Food insecurity, poor diet, and metabolic measures: The roles of stress and cortisol
Social class stigma and poorer health behaviors: Evidence from the eating in America study
Racialized Perceptions of Vegetarianism: Stereotypical Associations That Undermine Inclusion in Eating Behaviors
Shifting societal eating patterns toward a vegetarian diet offers promise for improving public health and environmental sustainability. Yet concerns exist about racial disparities in inclusion, as some sentiments suggest that vegetarianism is stereotypically associated with Whiteness. Through four studies (total N = 3,234), we investigated associations U.S. adults hold between race and vegetarianism, along with implications for behavior change an…
Open Science in Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine: A Statement From the Behavioral Medicine Research Council
Open Science practices include some combination of registering and publishing study protocols (including hypotheses, primary and secondary outcome variables, and analysis plans) and making available preprints of manuscripts, study materials, de-identified data sets, and analytic codes. This statement from the Behavioral Medicine Research Council (BMRC) provides an overview of these methods, including preregistration; registered reports; preprints…
The American Psychosomatic Society Antiracism Task Force: Implementation, Activities, and Lessons Learned
The American Psychosomatic Society (APS) is an international professional society that aims to advance the scientific study of biological, behavioral, and social factors in health among educators, clinicians, and researchers. In pledging to be an antiracist organization in 2020, APS formed the Antiracism Task Force to identify different manifestations of systemic racism within the society and to make recommendations for building a more inclusive …
The acute inflammatory effects of weight stigma: An experimental pilot study
Weight stigma is a chronic stressor and may contribute to cardiometabolic health risk. This pilot study tests an experimental protocol exploring acute inflammation as a potential biological mechanism connecting weight stigma and disease risk. Preliminary effect sizes and protocol feasibility were assessed. Women ( N =44, 68% white) with overweight/obesity ( M BMI =33.2±6.7 kg/m 2 ) were randomized to either weight stigma ( n =22) or control ( n =…
When meat-eaters expect vegan food to taste bad: Veganism as a symbolic threat
People who eat meat generally expect vegan food to taste bad. We theorize that this expectation stems in part from the perception that veganism is symbolically threatening; devaluing vegan food may enable meat-eaters to defend in-group values and defuse symbolic threat. We conducted four studies (total N = 1,563) on meat-eaters residing in the US. In Studies 1a and 1b, participants who most strongly endorsed carnism—the ideology that humans have …
Association between Childhood Maltreatment and Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Los Angeles
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with poor mental health outcomes in adulthood. Childhood maltreatment is related to both depressive and anxiety symptoms. Our objective was to investigate these associations among low-income, mostly Black and Latino men who have sex with men (MSM), as these may be a particularly vulnerable population group. Data come from a longitudinal study of MSM with varied substance use behaviors (n =…
Psychological Science in the Wake of Covid-19: Social, Methodological, and Metascientific Considerations
The COVID-19 pandemic has extensively changed the state of psychological science from what research questions psychologists can ask to which methodologies psychologists can use to investigate them. In this article, we offer a perspective on how to optimize new research in the pandemic’s wake. Because this pandemic is inherently a social phenomenon—an event that hinges on human-to-human contact—we focus on socially relevant subfields of psychology…
Moral Judgments of Covid-19 Social Distancing Violations: The Roles of Perceived Harm and Impurity
Can perceptions of impurity uniquely explain moral judgment? Or is moral judgment reducible to perceptions of harm? Whereas some perspectives posit that purity violations may drive moral judgment distinctly from harm violations, other perspectives contend that perceived harm is an essential precursor of moral condemnation. We tested these competing hypotheses through five preregistered experiments (total N = 2,944) investigating U.S. adults’ perc…
Effects of Early Life Adversity on Pubertal Timing and Tempo in Black and White Girls: The National Growth and Health Study
Screening for early life abuse may help address health disparities related to earlier pubertal timing
Perceived social support moderates the association between household dysfunction adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and self-reported drug use among men who have sex with men in Los Angeles, Califor…
Perceived social support emerged as a potential buffering factor for any reported drug use, particularly for the single ACE of household substance use history. Given that the association between ACEs and drug use was weak among those with higher levels of perceived social support, promotion of social ties in the community may help reduce the burden of substance use among MSM exposed to ACEs
Healthy versus unhealthy comfort eating for psychophysiological stress recovery in low-income Black and Latinx adults
Low-income Black and Latinx individuals are disproportionately vulnerable to chronic stress and metabolic disease. Evidence suggests that these populations engage in elevated levels of comfort eating (i.e., eating comforting food to alleviate stress), which can harm diet quality. For this reason, many interventions discourage comfort eating. However, if comfort eating does indeed buffer stress, it may be a protective health behavior, particularly…
Highly processed food intake and immediate and future emotions in everyday life
Jab my arm, not my morality: Perceived moral reproach as a barrier to Covid-19 vaccine uptake
Calories count: Memory of eating is evolutionarily special
A Pavlovian Intervention to Condition Comforting Effects of Fruits
OBJECTIVE: Perceived stress, lower fruit intake, and comfort eating are all risk factors for chronic disease. The present pilot study aimed to simultaneously mitigate all three risk factors by applying Pavlovian conditioning to change the nature of comfort eating. Specifically, stressed participants underwent a Pavlovian conditioning intervention designed to elicit comforting effects of fruit intake and thereby reduce negative mood while promotin…
Gender differences in meat consumption and openness to vegetarianism
Pro-environmental behavior predicts adherence to plant-based diets
How proximal are pescatarians to vegetarians? An investigation of dietary identity, motivation, and attitudes toward animals
Research on the psychology of eating behavior often treats vegetarians as a monolithic group. Yet, a considerable proportion of people (17% in Study 1) who self-identify as vegetarian are actually pescatarians-those who forgo all meats except fish. Research on the psychology of pescatarianism is profoundly lacking, which may hinder future interventionists' efforts to improve diet. Through two preregistered studies of adults from the United States…
Cultural Models, Socialization Goals, and Parenting Ethnotheories: A Multicultural Analysis
This study conceptualizes a cultural model of parenting. It is argued that cultural models are expressed in the degree of familism, which informs socialization goals that are embodied in parenting ethnotheories. Three cultural models were differentiated a priori: independent, interdependent, and autonomous-related. Samples were recruited that were expected to represent these cultural models: German, Euro-American, and Greek middle-class women rep…
When vegetarians eat meat: Why vegetarians violate their diets and how they feel about doing so
Gender differences in meat consumption and openness to vegetarianism
Taste and health concerns trump anticipated stigma as barriers to vegetarianism
Meat-eaters report that a number of barriers inhibit them from going vegetarian-for example, perceiving vegetarian diets to be inadequately nutritious, too expensive, unfamiliar, inconvenient, inadequately tasty, and socially stigmatizing. However, research identifying which barriers uniquely predict meat-eaters' openness to going vegetarian is lacking from the current literature. In the present research, accordingly, we conducted a highly powere…
An Evidence‐Based Rationale for Adopting Weight‐Inclusive Health Policy
Health policies routinely emphasize weight loss as a target for health promotion. These policies rest upon the assumptions: (1) that higher body weight equals poorer health, (2) that long‐term weight loss is widely achievable, and (3) that weight loss results in consistent improvements in physical health. Our review of the literature suggests that these three assumptions underlying the current weight‐focused approach are not supported empirically…
Triggers of eating in everyday life
Comfort eating, psychological stress, and depressive symptoms in young adult women
Little is known about whether comfort eating actually functions to reduce psychological stress. In addition, the effectiveness of comfort eating may be particularly relevant in the context of depression, but no study has tested whether comfort eating processes might depend on severity of depressive symptomology. This study tested 1) whether greater comfort eating statistically buffers the relationship between adverse life events and perceived psy…
Jab my arm, not my morality: Perceived moral reproach as a barrier to Covid-19 vaccine uptake
Pro-environmental behavior predicts adherence to plant-based diets
How proximal are pescatarians to vegetarians? An investigation of dietary identity, motivation, and attitudes toward animals
Research on the psychology of eating behavior often treats vegetarians as a monolithic group. Yet, a considerable proportion of people (17% in Study 1) who self-identify as vegetarian are actually pescatarians-those who forgo all meats except fish. Research on the psychology of pescatarianism is profoundly lacking, which may hinder future interventionists' efforts to improve diet. Through two preregistered studies of adults from the United States…
Food loves company: Risky eating with friends increases interpersonal closeness
Food-alcohol competition: As young females eat more food, do they drink less alcohol
Seminal health behaviour theories and behaviour modification techniques are applied to health behaviours individually. Limited empirical work investigates how change in one health behaviour may change another. This study proposes a food-alcohol competition hypothesis, where individuals tend to consume one rewarding substance to the other's exclusion. In a large sample of adolescent girls assessed yearly from age 15 to 19, Latent Growth Modelling …
Weight stigma as a stressor: A preliminary multi-wave, longitudinal study testing the biobehavioral pathways of the cyclic obesity/weight-based stigma (Cobwebs) model
Social class stigma and poorer health behaviors: Evidence from the eating in America study
When meat-eaters expect vegan food to taste bad: Veganism as a symbolic threat
People who eat meat generally expect vegan food to taste bad. We theorize that this expectation stems in part from the perception that veganism is symbolically threatening; devaluing vegan food may enable meat-eaters to defend in-group values and defuse symbolic threat. We conducted four studies (total N = 1,563) on meat-eaters residing in the US. In Studies 1a and 1b, participants who most strongly endorsed carnism—the ideology that humans have …
The psychological burden of baby weight: Pregnancy, weight stigma, and maternal health
Association between Childhood Maltreatment and Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Los Angeles
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with poor mental health outcomes in adulthood. Childhood maltreatment is related to both depressive and anxiety symptoms. Our objective was to investigate these associations among low-income, mostly Black and Latino men who have sex with men (MSM), as these may be a particularly vulnerable population group. Data come from a longitudinal study of MSM with varied substance use behaviors (n =…
Healthy versus unhealthy comfort eating for psychophysiological stress recovery in low-income Black and Latinx adults
Low-income Black and Latinx individuals are disproportionately vulnerable to chronic stress and metabolic disease. Evidence suggests that these populations engage in elevated levels of comfort eating (i.e., eating comforting food to alleviate stress), which can harm diet quality. For this reason, many interventions discourage comfort eating. However, if comfort eating does indeed buffer stress, it may be a protective health behavior, particularly…
Highly processed food intake and immediate and future emotions in everyday life
Non-food rewards and highly processed food intake in everyday life
An experimental field study of weight salience and food choice
Cultural Models, Socialization Goals, and Parenting Ethnotheories: A Multicultural Analysis
This study conceptualizes a cultural model of parenting. It is argued that cultural models are expressed in the degree of familism, which informs socialization goals that are embodied in parenting ethnotheories. Three cultural models were differentiated a priori: independent, interdependent, and autonomous-related. Samples were recruited that were expected to represent these cultural models: German, Euro-American, and Greek middle-class women rep…
Medicare's search for effective obesity treatments: Diets are not the answer.
Triggers of eating in everyday life
The Authors Reply
Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (Tomiyama) Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (Dallman)
Low Calorie Dieting Increases Cortisol
OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that dieting, or the restriction of caloric intake, is ineffective because it increases chronic psychological stress and cortisol production--two factors that are known to cause weight gain; and to examine the respective roles of the two main behaviors that comprise dieting--monitoring one's caloric intake and restricting one's caloric intake--on psychological and biological stress indicators. METHODS: In a 2 (mo…
Physical Activity Moderates Effects of Stressor-Induced Rumination on Cortisol Reactivity
OBJECTIVE: Physically active individuals have lower rates of morbidity and mortality, and recent evidence indicates that physical activity may be particularly beneficial to those experiencing chronic stress. The tendency to ruminate increases and prolongs physiological stress responses, including hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responses as indexed by cortisol reactivity to stressful experiences. We examined the association between rumi…
Beyond Interventions: Caloric Restriction as a Scientific Model
Caloric restriction is a major component of most life-style interventions. Beyond its use as an intervention tool, caloric restriction can also serve as a scientific model to study important research questions. Caloric restriction in nonhuman animals can dramatically extend the life span, and this can also be tested in humans. In addition to conducting randomized controlled trials of caloric restriction, there is much knowledge to be gained by st…
If Shaming Reduced Obesity, There Would Be No Fat People
One of six commentaries on “Obesity: Chasing an Elusive Epidemic,” by Daniel Callahan, from the January‐February 2013 issue
Weight stigma is stressful. A review of evidence for the Cyclic Obesity/Weight-Based Stigma model
Did That Brownie Do Its Job? Stress, Eating, and the Biobehavioral Effects of Comfort Food
Comfort eating is a widespread behavior, but does it actually work? The purpose of this review is to provide a summary of the existing research on the potentially comforting effects of comfort food. We begin by summarizing the existing nonhuman animal research in this area, and then summarize the human research. On the basis of this foundational research, we provide a conceptual model of comfort eating that can be used as a hypothesis‐generating …
It’s Not You, It’s Me: Self-Perceptions, Antifat Attitudes, and Stereotyping of Obese Individuals
Much research focuses on the formation of antifat attitudes, but an understanding of antifat bias is incomplete without incorporating self-perceptions. We tested a model in which self-perceptions influenced stereotyping of the same target shown as obese versus thin via antifat attitudes. Participants rated six targets, two of which were the same individual before and after weight loss. Questionnaires assessed participants’ self-perceptions and an…
Prediction of Daily Food Intake as a Function of Measurement Modality and Restriction Status
OBJECTIVE: Research on eating relies on various indices (e.g., stable, momentary, neural) to accurately reflect food-related reactivity (e.g., disinhibition) and regulation (e.g., restraint) outside the laboratory. The degree to which they differentially predict real-world consumption remains unclear. Further, the predictive validity of these indices might vary depending on whether an individual is actively restricting intake. METHODS: We assesse…
An experimental field study of weight salience and food choice
Comfort eating, psychological stress, and depressive symptoms in young adult women
Little is known about whether comfort eating actually functions to reduce psychological stress. In addition, the effectiveness of comfort eating may be particularly relevant in the context of depression, but no study has tested whether comfort eating processes might depend on severity of depressive symptomology. This study tested 1) whether greater comfort eating statistically buffers the relationship between adverse life events and perceived psy…
A Call to Shift the Public Health Focus Away From Weight
Fildes et al.(1) present sobering data on the reality of sustained weight loss for individuals with obesity. These authors concluded that current approaches to weight loss have failed and suggest, "research to develop wider reaching public health policies is needed to prevent obesity at the population level." We agree that advances in research and policy should be leveraged to promote population health. However, we assert that this can best be ac…
Misclassification of cardiometabolic health when using body mass index categories in NHANES 2005–2012
Taking a Stand: The Effects of Standing Desks on Task Performance and Engagement
Time spent sitting is associated with negative health outcomes, motivating some individuals to adopt standing desk workstations. This study represents the first investigation of the effects of standing desk use on reading comprehension and creativity. In a counterbalanced, within-subjects design, 96 participants completed reading comprehension and creativity tasks while both sitting and standing. Participants self-reported their mood during the t…
Gender Differences in the Association between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Cancer
Food-alcohol competition: As young females eat more food, do they drink less alcohol
Seminal health behaviour theories and behaviour modification techniques are applied to health behaviours individually. Limited empirical work investigates how change in one health behaviour may change another. This study proposes a food-alcohol competition hypothesis, where individuals tend to consume one rewarding substance to the other's exclusion. In a large sample of adolescent girls assessed yearly from age 15 to 19, Latent Growth Modelling …
How and why weight stigma drives the obesity ‘epidemic’ and harms health
BACKGROUND: In an era when obesity prevalence is high throughout much of the world, there is a correspondingly pervasive and strong culture of weight stigma. For example, representative studies show that some forms of weight discrimination are more prevalent even than discrimination based on race or ethnicity. DISCUSSION: In this Opinion article, we review compelling evidence that weight stigma is harmful to health, over and above objective body …
Body mass index and educational inequality: An update of Crandall (1995)
Over 2 decades ago, social psychological research revealed that weight stigma may undermine educational achievement. This study documented that a greater proportion of college students were thin compared with the general population and that heavier females received less college financial support fro
The psychosocial experience of feeling overweight promotes increased snack food consumption in women but not men
Food loves company: Risky eating with friends increases interpersonal closeness
Stress and Obesity
Many pathways connect stress and obesity, two highly prevalent problems facing society today. First, stress interferes with cognitive processes such as executive function and self-regulation. Second, stress can affect behavior by inducing overeating and consumption of foods that are high in calories, fat, or sugar; by decreasing physical activity; and by shortening sleep. Third, stress triggers physiological changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-…
Can she be healthy at her weight? Effects of news media frames on antifat attitudes, dieting intentions, and perceived health risks of obesity
Psychology (47 works) · Medicine (40 works) · Eating Disorders and Behaviors (25 works) · Psychiatry (24 works) · Obesity (17 works) · Social Psychology (17 works) · Developmental psychology (16 works) · Obesity and Health Practices (16 works) · Clinical Psychology (15 works) · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet (15 works)