Demographic and sociocultural predictors of sexuality-related body image and sexual frequency: The U.S. Body Project I

Body image is a critical component of an individual's sexual experiences. This makes it critical to identify demographic and sociocultural correlates of sexuality-related body image: the subjective feelings, cognitions, and evaluations related to one's body in the context of sexual experience. We examined how sexuality-related body image differed by gender, sexual orientation, race, age, and BMI. Four items assessing sexuality-related body image were completed by 11,620 U.S. adults: self-perceived sex appeal of their body, nude appearance satisfaction, and the extent to which they believed that body image positively or negatively affected their sexual enjoyment and feelings of sexual acceptability as a partner. Men reported slightly less nude appearance dissatisfaction and fewer negative effects of body image on sexual enjoyment and sexual acceptability than women, but did not differ in reported sex appeal. Poorer sexuality-related body image was reported by people with higher BMIs, not in relationships, who had sex less frequently, among White compared to Black women and men, and among gay compared to heterosexual men. Data also revealed a subgroup of respondents who reported that their body image had a positive impact on their sex lives. The findings highlight a need for interventions addressing sexuality-related body image.

Demographic and sociocultural predictors of face image satisfaction: The U.S. Body Project I

Despite substantial literature surrounding how people process and perceive faces, there is very little research investigating how people evaluate their own faces. We examined how gender, body mass, race, age, and sexual orientation were linked to people's satisfaction with the appearance of their eyes, nose, facial shape, and face overall among 11,620 adults recruited via Mechanical Turk. Most people mostly or definitely agreed they were happy with their facial appearance. There were notable racial differences, with Asian participants tending to report greater dissatisfaction. For example, only 66% of Asian women and 60% of Asian men mostly or definitely agreed that they were happy with the appearance of their eyes, which was lower than other racial groups. BMI and age were not strongly associated with face satisfaction. Sexual minority men were less satisfied than heterosexual men. About one in four gay and bisexual men, compared to only one in seven heterosexual men, reported dissatisfaction with their overall facial appearance. Men and women with poorer face image engaged in more appearance surveillance, more strongly internalized the thin-ideal, and perceived stronger sociocultural pressures from peers, parents, and media. The current study highlights important sociocultural and demographic factors tied to poorer face image.

Investigating the Components of Body Image Disturbance Within Eating Disorders

Body image disturbance has been highlighted as a common characteristic within the development and maintenance of clinical eating disorders (EDs), represented by alterations in an individual's bodily experience. However, whilst the perceptual stability of the sense of body ownership has been investigated in ED patients, the stability of the sense of body agency in those with ED is yet to be examined. Therefore, body ownership and body agency were investigated using the moving rubber hand illusion, alongside measures of explicit and implicit body satisfaction. Furthermore, with evidence demonstrating a direct link between perceptual and cognitive-affective components of body image in the healthy population, the relationship between measures of body perception and body satisfaction was investigated. Results showed that both ED and healthy individuals displayed a similar subjective experience of illusory ownership and agency towards the fake hand, following voluntary movement. However, whilst both groups initially overestimated their own hand width prior to the illusion, the ED group displayed a significant reduction in hand size estimation following the illusion, which was not matched to the same degree in healthy individuals. In addition, ED individuals displayed a significantly lower body satisfaction compared with healthy females, on both an explicit and implicit level. Such implicit outcomes were shown to be driven specifically by a weaker association between the self and attractiveness. Finally, a significant relationship was observed between specific perceptual measures and implicit body satisfaction, which highlights the important link between perceptual and cognitive-affective components of one's body image. Together, such findings provide a useful foundation for further research to study the conditions in which these two components relate with regard to body image and its disturbance, particularly in relation to the prognosis and treatment of EDs.

Time course of attentional biases toward body shapes: The impact of body dissatisfaction

Using a dot-probe discrimination task and a between-subjects design, we examined the time course of attentional biases (facilitated attention, delayed disengagement, and avoidance) toward thin versus fat bodies and explored the influence of body dissatisfaction (BD) on attention allocation among a sample of 163 women from the general population. Three stimulus presentation times were used: 100ms, 500ms, and 1500ms. We also used neutral body-shape-related stimuli as neutral stimuli related to the concept of interest to overcome the limitations of previous studies. At 500ms, the results highlighted delayed disengagement from very thin and negatively assessed bodies among women with high BD. This mechanism, which leads to attentional focalization on bodies that are difficult to achieve, might be considered dysfunctional because it may maintain or reinforce BD. Results at 100ms and 1500ms, as well as results for fat bodies, were not conclusive.

Neurobiology of Anorexia Nervosa: Serotonin Dysfunctions Link Self-Starvation with Body Image Disturbances through an Impaired Body Memory

The etiology of anorexia nervosa (AN) is still unclear, despite that it is a critical and potentially mortal illness. A recent neurobiological model considers AN as the outcome of dysfunctions in the neuronal processes related to appetite and emotionality (Kaye et al., 2009, 2013). However, this model still is not able to answer a critical question: What is behind body image disturbances (BIDs) in AN? The article starts its analysis from reviewing some of the studies exploring the effects of the serotonin systems in memory (episodic, working, and spatial) and its dysfunctions. The review suggests that serotonin disturbances may: (a) facilitate the encoding of third person (allocentric) episodic memories; (b) facilitate the consolidation of emotional episodic memories (e.g., teasing), if preceded by repeated stress; (c) reduce voluntary inhibition of mnestic contents; (d) impair allocentric spatial memory. If we discuss these results within the interpretative frame suggested by the “Allocentric Lock Hypothesis” (Riva, 2012, 2014), we can hypothesize that altered serotoninergic activity in AN patients: (i) improves their ability to store and consolidate negative autobiographical memories, including those of their body, in allocentric perspective; (ii) impairs their ability to trigger voluntary inhibition of the previously stored negative memory of the body; (iii) impairs their capacity to retrieve/update allocentric information. Taken together, these points suggest a possible link between serotonin dysfunctions, memory impairments and BIDs: the impossibility of updating a disturbed body memory using real time experiential data—I'm locked to a wrong body stored in long term memory—pushes AN patients to control body weight and shape even when underweight.

Decreasing body dissatisfaction using a brief conditioning intervention

OBJECTIVE

Body dissatisfaction in females is common and a risk factor for the development of an eating disorder. This study tested whether body dissatisfaction could be improved using a brief conditioning intervention in which photographs of participants' bodies were selectively paired with positive social stimuli (smiling faces) and photographs of other bodies were paired with neutral or negative social stimuli (neutral and frowning faces).

METHOD

39 women (mean age = 22.46; 64.1% Caucasian) with high body dissatisfaction were randomized to either the evaluative conditioning intervention (n = 22) or to a delayed waitlist control condition (n = 17). Body dissatisfaction (specifically, shape and weight concern), restraint, eating concern, and self-esteem were assessed at baseline, post treatment and again after four and 12 weeks.

RESULTS

Compared to women in the delayed waitlist control condition, women in the treatment condition demonstrated a significant decrease in shape and weight concern, and a significant increase in self-esteem. Similar trends were found for the control condition after they completed the intervention. Changes at post treatment related to body dissatisfaction were maintained at 12-week follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

Repeatedly pairing photographs of an individual's body with positive social feedback may lead to improved body image and self-esteem.

Implicitly assessed attitudes toward body shape and food: the moderating roles of dietary restraint and disinhibition

BACKGROUND

Attitudes toward body shape and food play a role in the development and maintenance of dysfunctional eating behaviors. Nevertheless, they are rarely investigated together. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the interrelationships between implicitly assessed attitudes toward body shape and food and to investigate the moderating effect on these associations of interindividual differences in problematic and nonproblematic eating behaviors (i.e., flexible versus rigid cognitive control dimension of restraint, disinhibition).

METHODS

One hundred and twenty-one young women from the community completed two adapted versions of the Affect Misattribution Procedure to implicitly assess attitudes toward body shape (i.e., thin and overweight bodies) and food (i.e., "permitted" and "forbidden" foods), as well as the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire to evaluate restraint and disinhibition.

RESULTS

The results revealed that an implicit preference for thinness was positively associated with a positive attitude toward permitted (i.e., low-calorie) foods. This congruence between implicitly assessed attitudes toward body shape and food was significant at average and high levels of flexible control (i.e., functional component of eating). Moreover, an implicit preference for thinness was also positively associated with a positive attitude toward forbidden (i.e., high-calorie) foods. This discordance between implicitly assessed attitudes was significant at average and high levels of rigid control and disinhibition (i.e., dysfunctional components of eating).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings shed new light on the influence of congruent or discordant implicitly assessed attitudes toward body shape and food on normal and problematic eating behaviors; clinical implications are discussed.