Take a look at the bright side: Effects of positive body exposure on selective visual attention in women with high body dissatisfaction

Abstract

Women with high body dissatisfaction look less at their 'beautiful' body parts than their 'ugly' body parts. This study tested the robustness of this selective viewing pattern and examined the influence of positive body exposure on body-dissatisfied women's attention for 'ugly' and 'beautiful' body parts. In women with high body dissatisfaction (N = 28) and women with low body dissatisfaction (N = 14) eye-tracking was used to assess visual attention towards pictures of their own and other women's bodies. Participants with high body dissatisfaction were randomly assigned to 5 weeks positive body exposure (n = 15) or a no-treatment condition (n = 13). Attention bias was assessed again after 5 weeks. Body-dissatisfied women looked longer at 'ugly' than 'beautiful' body parts of themselves and others, while participants with low body dissatisfaction attended equally long to own/others' 'beautiful' and 'ugly' body parts. Although positive body exposure was very effective in improving participants' body satisfaction, it did not systematically change participants' viewing pattern. The tendency to preferentially allocate attention towards one's 'ugly' body parts seems a robust phenomenon in women with body dissatisfaction. Yet, modifying this selective viewing pattern seems not a prerequisite for successfully improving body satisfaction via positive body exposure.

The effects of priming in a cued dot‐probe task on appearance‐related attentional biases in women

“…Another possibility is that these attentional biases reflect theorized selective attention for goal performance information for women with appearance goals to be “beautiful” (Fairburn et al, ). Such explanations correspond with findings that women with eating disorders and body dissatisfaction tend to focus on attractive regions of others' bodies (Blechert et al, ; Glashouwer et al, ; Jansen et al, ; Roefs et al, ; Smeets et al, ) and attractive rather than unattractive bodies (Cho & Lee, ). In comparison, thoughts pertaining to the self, as reflected in a bias for negative‐appearance words, might not be as accessible in underlying appearance schemas when cueing with images of thin models.…”

“…Second, there were correlations between poorer body image and attentional biases for positive-appearance words in both the appearance-cued and time-delayed DPTs. Given that past research has found similar attentional biases between women with body dissatisfaction and eating disorders (Aspen et al, 2013;Blechert et al, 2010;Gao et al, 2011;Glashouwer et al, 2016;Jansen et al, 2005), it could be speculated that women with body dissatisfaction who possess these biases may be at particular risk for development of clinical disorders. Further investigation of attentional biases for positive-valence stimuli in experimental and longitudinal studies would help address their theorized causal and maintenance role in these disorders.…”

“…Similarly, in a DPT with a 1,000 ms presentation time, Gao et al () found that women with body dissatisfaction demonstrated attentional biases for negative shape words. Eye‐movement tracking studies have also shown that women with both eating disorders (Blechert, Ansorge, & Tuschen‐Caffier, ; Jansen, Nederkoom, & Mulkens, ) and body dissatisfaction (Glashouwer, Jonker, Thomassen, & de Jong, ; Roefs et al, ; Smeets, Jansen, & Roefs, ) tend to focus on the attractive regions of others' bodies and self‐nominated unattractive regions of their own body. Given that body dissatisfaction is a risk factor for eating disorders (Liechty & Lee, ; Stice & Shaw, ), the presence of attentional biases common to both may have implications for the development of eating disorders in women with body dissatisfaction.…”

Eating disorder symptomatology and body mass index are associated with readers' expectations about character behavior: Evidence from eye‐tracking during reading

“…Several studies have utilized eye‐tracking to investigate the processing of body‐ and/or food‐related stimuli, primarily for body or weight dissatisfaction in non‐clinical samples (e.g., Gao et al, ; Glashouwer, Jonker, Thomassen, & de Jong, ; Jansen, Nederkoorn, & Mulkens, ). For instance, despite self‐reported improvement of reduced shape concern and eating disorder symptoms, Glashouwer et al () reported that women with high body dissatisfaction attended to “ugly” body parts longer than “beautiful” ones for both their own and other people's body images, after a 5‐week body positivity training. Thus, it may be the case that eye‐tracking is a more sensitive objective measure than self‐report.…”

“…. For instance, despite self-reported improvement of reduced shape concern and eating disorder symptoms, Glashouwer et al (2016) reported that women with high body dissatisfaction attended to "ugly" body parts longer than "beautiful" ones for both their own and other people's body images, after a 5-week body positivity training. Thus, it may be the case that eyetracking is a more sensitive objective measure than self-report.…”