Female Body Dissatisfaction and Attentional Bias to Body Images Evaluated Using Visual Search
One factor, believed to predict body dissatisfaction is an individual’s propensity to attend to certain classes of human body image stimuli relative to other classes. These attentional biases have been evaluated using a range of paradigms, including dot-probe, eye-tracking and free view visual searc...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02821/full |
| _version_ | 1818449790232428544 |
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| author | John Cass John Cass Georgina Giltrap Daniel Talbot |
| author_facet | John Cass John Cass Georgina Giltrap Daniel Talbot |
| author_sort | John Cass |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | One factor, believed to predict body dissatisfaction is an individual’s propensity to attend to certain classes of human body image stimuli relative to other classes. These attentional biases have been evaluated using a range of paradigms, including dot-probe, eye-tracking and free view visual search, which have yielded a range of – often contradictory – findings. This study is the first to employ a classic compound visual search task to investigate the relationship between body dissatisfaction and attentional biases to images of underweight and with-overweight female bodies. Seventy-one undergraduate females, varying their degree of body dissatisfaction and Body Mass Index (BMI), searched for a horizontal or vertical target line among tilted lines. A separate female body image was presented within close proximity to each line. On average, faster search times were obtained when the target line was paired with a uniquely underweight or with-overweight body relative to neutral (average weight only) trials indicating that body weight-related images can effectively guide search. This congruent search effect was stronger for individuals with high eating restraint (a behavioral manifestation of body image disturbance) when search involved a uniquely underweight body. By contrast, individuals with high BMIs searched for lines more rapidly when paired with with-overweight rather than underweight bodies, than did individuals with lower BMIs. For incongruent trials – in which a unique body was paired with a distractor rather than the target – search times were indistinguishable from neutral trials, indicating that the deviant bodies neither compulsorily “captured” attention nor reduced participants’ ability to disengage their attention from either underweight or with-overweight bodies. These results imply the existence of attentional strategies which reflect one’s current body and goal-directed eating behaviors. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T20:41:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3d815e32c1a642998bfa6a6cdb678f54 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T20:41:00Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-3d815e32c1a642998bfa6a6cdb678f542022-12-21T22:48:16ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782020-01-011010.3389/fpsyg.2019.02821493784Female Body Dissatisfaction and Attentional Bias to Body Images Evaluated Using Visual SearchJohn Cass0John Cass1Georgina Giltrap2Daniel Talbot3School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaSchool of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaSchool of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaSchool of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaOne factor, believed to predict body dissatisfaction is an individual’s propensity to attend to certain classes of human body image stimuli relative to other classes. These attentional biases have been evaluated using a range of paradigms, including dot-probe, eye-tracking and free view visual search, which have yielded a range of – often contradictory – findings. This study is the first to employ a classic compound visual search task to investigate the relationship between body dissatisfaction and attentional biases to images of underweight and with-overweight female bodies. Seventy-one undergraduate females, varying their degree of body dissatisfaction and Body Mass Index (BMI), searched for a horizontal or vertical target line among tilted lines. A separate female body image was presented within close proximity to each line. On average, faster search times were obtained when the target line was paired with a uniquely underweight or with-overweight body relative to neutral (average weight only) trials indicating that body weight-related images can effectively guide search. This congruent search effect was stronger for individuals with high eating restraint (a behavioral manifestation of body image disturbance) when search involved a uniquely underweight body. By contrast, individuals with high BMIs searched for lines more rapidly when paired with with-overweight rather than underweight bodies, than did individuals with lower BMIs. For incongruent trials – in which a unique body was paired with a distractor rather than the target – search times were indistinguishable from neutral trials, indicating that the deviant bodies neither compulsorily “captured” attention nor reduced participants’ ability to disengage their attention from either underweight or with-overweight bodies. These results imply the existence of attentional strategies which reflect one’s current body and goal-directed eating behaviors.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02821/fullvisual searchattentional biasbody dissatisfactionbody imagebody perceptionbody mass index |
| spellingShingle | John Cass John Cass Georgina Giltrap Daniel Talbot Female Body Dissatisfaction and Attentional Bias to Body Images Evaluated Using Visual Search Frontiers in Psychology visual search attentional bias body dissatisfaction body image body perception body mass index |
| title | Female Body Dissatisfaction and Attentional Bias to Body Images Evaluated Using Visual Search |
| title_full | Female Body Dissatisfaction and Attentional Bias to Body Images Evaluated Using Visual Search |
| title_fullStr | Female Body Dissatisfaction and Attentional Bias to Body Images Evaluated Using Visual Search |
| title_full_unstemmed | Female Body Dissatisfaction and Attentional Bias to Body Images Evaluated Using Visual Search |
| title_short | Female Body Dissatisfaction and Attentional Bias to Body Images Evaluated Using Visual Search |
| title_sort | female body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to body images evaluated using visual search |
| topic | visual search attentional bias body dissatisfaction body image body perception body mass index |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02821/full |
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