Drive for thinness and attention toward specific body parts in a nonclinical sample

To examine the differences between participants scoring high versus low on a drive for thinness construct concerning their visual attention toward specific body parts. We hypothesized that participants scoring high on the drive for thinness subscale would show increased attention to body regions, wh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychosomatic medicine 2008-07, Vol.70 (6), p.729-736
Main Authors: Hewig, Johannes, Cooper, Spring, Trippe, Ralf H, Hecht, Holger, Straube, Thomas, Miltner, Wolfgang H R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Attention - physiology
Biological organs
Body Image
Body Weight
Drive
Extremities
Eye Movements - physiology
Eyes & eyesight
Female
Hips
Human Body
Humans
Legs
Male
Men
Perceptions
Self awareness
Sex Factors
Students - psychology
Subscales
Thinness
Thinness - psychology
Visual Perception - physiology
Waist-Hip Ratio - psychology
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Summary:To examine the differences between participants scoring high versus low on a drive for thinness construct concerning their visual attention toward specific body parts. We hypothesized that participants scoring high on the drive for thinness subscale would show increased attention to body regions, which are important in the assessment of body weight and thinness like the waist, hips, legs, and arms. We examined eye-gaze behavior of a nonclinical sample of 51 male and female college students with an eye-tracking system as they were looking at pictures of young, attractive males and females. In addition, we used the Eating Disorder Inventory to measure drive for thinness. Participants with increased scores on the drive for thinness subscale looked longer and more often to the waist, hips, legs, and arms as compared with low scorers. In addition, they showed decreased attention toward the head or face. The results indicate that participants scoring high on drive for thinness show an attentional bias toward body regions that are associated with assessing changes in weight. However, they neglected the face, which is the most important source of social and affective information when looking at others.
ISSN:0033-3174
1534-7796
DOI:10.1097/PSY.0b013e31817e41d3