Double standards in body evaluation? How identifying with a body stimulus influences ratings in women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa

Abstract

Objective Women with eating disorders (ED) evaluate their own body more negatively than do women without ED. However, it is unclear whether this negative rating is due to objective bodily features or different standards for one's own body and others' bodies. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether women with ED apply double standards when rating bodies by disentangling the objective features of one's own body from the feelings of ownership. Method We presented n = 34 women with anorexia nervosa, n = 31 women with bulimia nervosa, and n = 114 healthy controls with pictures of thin, average‐weight, overweight, athletic, and hypermuscular bodies. Identity was manipulated by showing each body once with the participant's own face and once with the face of another woman. Participants were instructed to report their emotional state according to valence and arousal and to rate body attractiveness, body fat, and muscle mass. Results Women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa displayed greater self‐deprecating double standards in body fat rating than did women without ED, as quantified by the difference between the ratings of the same body with one's own versus another woman's face. Double standards reflected in valence, arousal and attractiveness ratings were significantly more pronounced in women with anorexia nervosa than in women without ED. Discussion The double standards found may be due to an activation of dysfunctional self‐related body schemata, which distort body evaluation depending on identity. Double standards related to body fat were characteristic for women with ED, but not for women without ED.

The Body Image Approach Test (BIAT): A Potential Measure of the Behavioral Components of Body Image Disturbance in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa?

“…Also, EDs showed significantly stronger negative attitudes compared to HCs. This is in line with former research showing implicit negative bodyrelated attitudes in women with AN and BN compared to healthy women (e.g., Voges et al, 2018).…”

Gender Differences in Body Evaluation: Do Men Show More Self-Serving Double Standards Than Women?

“…For thin, average-weight, athletic and hypermuscular bodies, women applied the same standards for both identities, indicating no double standards in general (Voges et al, 2017). In contrast, women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa showed more pronounced self-deprecating double standards across all body types (Voges et al, 2018). Thus, women without an eating disorder diagnosis seem to mostly be fair-minded when rating their own body and other bodies, but when eating pathology exists, women rate in a self-deprecating manner (Voges et al, 2018).…”

“…We hypothesized that men would show more self-serving double standards than women, reflected by more positive ratings of a body with one’s own face compared to a body with another person’s face. Furthermore, from an exploratory perspective, we examined how body dissatisfaction is associated with the extent of double standards in men and women (Voges et al, 2018).…”

Spiegelexposition bei Essstörungen – Schritt für Schritt

“…Viele Betroffene äußern trotz Normal-oder sogar Untergewicht, dass sie sich als "dick" wahrnehmen. Inzwischen wurde gezeigt, dass sich diese Wahrnehmung auf das "empfundene" Gewicht beschränkt: Die Betroffenen betrachten zwar subjektiv als hässlich empfundene Körperteile länger [1] und zeigen Doppelstandards bei der Bewertung eigener versus fremder Körper [2] sowie starke Überschätzungen für das "empfundene Gewicht" [3,4]. Jedoch können sie ihr tatsächliches Körpergewicht dennoch akkurat wahrnehmen und einschätzen [5].…”