Appearance evaluation of others' faces and bodies in anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder

Abstract

Objective Individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) exhibit distorted perception and negative evaluations of their own appearance; however, little is known about how they perceive others’ appearance, and whether or not the conditions share perceptual distortions. Method Thirty participants with BDD, 22 with AN, now weight-restored, and 39 healthy controls (HC) rated photographs of others’ faces and bodies on attractiveness, how overweight or underweight they were, and how much photographs triggered thoughts of their own appearance. We compared responses among groups by stimulus type and by level-of-detail (spatial frequency). Results Compared to HCs, AN and BDD had lower attractiveness ratings for others’ bodies and faces for high-detail and low-detail images, rated bodies as more overweight, and were more triggered to think of their own appearance for faces and bodies. In AN, symptom severity was associated with greater triggering of thoughts of own appearance and higher endorsement of overweight ratings for bodies. In BDD, symptom severity was associated with greater triggering of thoughts of own appearance for bodies and higher overweight ratings for low-detail images. BDD was more triggered to think of own facial appearance than AN. Discussion AN and BDD show similar behavioral phenotypes of negative appearance evaluations for others’ faces and bodies, and have thoughts of their own appearance triggered even for images outside of their primary appearance concerns, suggesting a more complex cross-disorder body-image phenotype than previously assumed. Future treatment strategies may benefit from addressing how these individuals evaluate others in addition to themselves.

Assessing body image in anorexia nervosa using biometric self-avatars in virtual reality: Attitudinal components rather than visual body size estimation are distorted

“…This explanation, however, implies that patients with AN should also overestimate the weight of other thin people. Interestingly, some recent studies observed that patients with AN indeed tend to overestimate other people's weight when rating their weight in categories (Horndasch et al 2015 ; Moody et al 2016 ). In contrast, another study observed that participants with AN accurately memorized and adjusted another person's body (Øverås et al 2014 ).…”

Brain activation and connectivity in anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder when viewing bodies: relationships to clinical symptoms and perception of appearance

“…Participants engaged in a task of matching photos of bodies or shapes in the MR scanner. The photos were black and white photos of other people's bodies (female and male subjects) wearing underwear, ranging from normal to overweight (Moody et al, 2017).…”

Body image avoidance affects interpersonal distance perception: A virtual environment experiment

“…To replicate and extend present research, we assume that females with a diagnosis of an ED show larger IPD as compared to control participants without EDs (H1), that eating psychopathology assessed with the EDI‐2, body‐image‐related behaviors assessed with the BCAQ and BMI of the person itself would be positively related to overall IPD (H2). We further expect that normal and ideal‐weighted avatars produce the smallest IPDs as compared to fat and underweight avatars (H3); these effects may be particularly attenuated in EDs (Moody et al, ), as body weight is a salient emotional cues for individuals with EDs (H4). Finally, we hypothesized that women with high levels of body‐image avoidance prefer relatively larger IPDs towards fat as compared to normal avatars, indicating stronger avoidance tendencies based on alleviated body weight (H5).…”