Female body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to body images evaluated using visual search
Journal article
Cass, John, Giltrap, Georgina and Talbot, Daniel. (2020). Female body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to body images evaluated using visual search. Frontiers in Psychology. 10, p. Article 2821. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02821
Authors | Cass, John, Giltrap, Georgina and Talbot, Daniel |
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Abstract | 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. |
Keywords | visual search; attentional bias; body dissatisfaction; body image; body perception; body mass index |
Year | 2020 |
Journal | Frontiers in Psychology |
Journal citation | 10, p. Article 2821 |
Publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
ISSN | 1664-1078 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02821 |
PubMed ID | 32038346 |
Scopus EID | 2-s2.0-85079041743 |
PubMed Central ID | PMC6987376 |
Open access | Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access |
Page range | 1-13 |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 22 Jan 2020 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 29 Nov 2019 |
Deposited | 28 May 2025 |
Additional information | Copyright © 2020 Cass, Giltrap and Talbot. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/91xvy/female-body-dissatisfaction-and-attentional-bias-to-body-images-evaluated-using-visual-search
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Publisher's version
OA_Cass_2020_Female_body_dissatisfaction_and_attentional_bias.pdf | |
License: CC BY 4.0 | |
File access level: Open |
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