Time pressure promotes habitual control over goal-directed control among individuals with overweight and obesity

People with overweight and obesity consistently attempt to regulate their weight but typically fail to control their eating behaviors. Reward learning impairments have recently been utilized to explain the problem. According to dual-system theory, reward learning and performance depend on the balance between goal-directed and habitual behavioral control system. As the goal-directed control system need time to operate, time pressure was exploited to temporarily hinder the goal-directed control system and unmask latent habitual responses. In the present study, we evaluated the reward learning behaviors, particularly goal-directed and habitual responses, in individuals with overweight and obesity, and evaluated the effects of time pressure on the expression of habits. A total of sixty-eight overweight/obesity and lean undergraduates underwent four outcome-revaluation tasks in food or non-food context, and under no or high time pressure conditions. We found that compared to lean individuals, individuals with overweight/obesity showed more habitual responses toward both food and non-food reward under the high time pressure condition; however, there was no group difference in habitual responses under the no time pressure condition. These results indicate a deficit in the formation of goal-directed control or an overreliance on habits under time pressure among individuals with overweight and obesity. These results support the Habit Hypothesis for Overeating that overweight and obesity are related to habit-like eating behaviors, due to a maladaptive adjustment between the habit and the goal-directed behavioral control systems. As a result, further developments of habit-based interventions can benefit weight loss and long-term weight loss maintenance.