The sleeping dragon of rebellion 28 The researchers dubbed this the What the Hell Effect. Basically, once dieters started to break their diet, they decided‘ what the hell, I’ ve blown it now, I might as well have a good time’ and started rebound overeating. The Last Supper Effect A related phenomenon is the Last Supper Effect. The paper that this chapter’ s opening quote comes from described how the mere prospect of going on a diet affects some people. It is worth having a look at this research, not just because of what it teaches us about the tricks that we play on ourselves, but also because it is fascinating to see how many untruths researchers can inject into a single study! The study was done on 46 female college students( for the usual reasons outlined above). The group contained women who were restricting their food intake( i. e.‘ dieting’) and women who were not. In return for course credit points( an outright bribe) they enrolled in a study that looked at the link between dieting and taste appreciation( a lie). Half the group were not required to diet and were told they were simply there for taste testing. The other half were told that they would initially do a baseline taste test( another lie), they would then go on a diet for seven days( a bigger lie), and they would then be retested for their taste appreciation( a total fabrication). The most elaborate lie is best presented here in their own words5:‘ The participants were shown the Canadian Government and University of Toronto approved student meal plan. This fictional low-fat, caloriereduced diet plan consisted of breakfast shakes and pre-packaged Lean 5 Dax Urbszat, C. Peter Herman, & Janet Polivy. Eat, Drink, and Be Merry, for Tomorrow We Diet: Effects of Anticipated Deprivation on Food Intake in Restrained and Unrestrained Eaters. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 2002, 111:2:396 – 401.