Facial asymmetry detection in patients with body dysmorphic disorder

• Published in: Behaviour research and therapy 2010-09, Vol.48 (9), p.936-940
• Main Authors: Reese, Hannah E., McNally, Richard J., Wilhelm, Sabine
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aestheticality; Behavior modification; Biological and medical sciences; Body dysmorphic disorder; Body Dysmorphic Disorders - psychology; Case-Control Studies; Cognitive models; Detection; Esthetics; Face; Facial Asymmetry; Facial perception; Female; Humans; Judgments; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Neuroses; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - psychology; Obsessive-Compulsive neuroses; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Personal appearance; Personality disorders; Preferences; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reference Values; Sensory Thresholds - physiology; Somatoform disorders. Psychosomatics; Symmetry; Visual Perception - physiology
• ISSN: 0005-7967; 1873-622X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2010.05.021

Cognitive-behavioral models of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) propose that individuals with BDD may possess a better or more developed sense of aestheticality than do individuals without BDD. Evidence for this proposition, however, is limited. One perceptual process that could contribute to heightened aestheticality is the ability to detect differences in symmetry. In this experiment we tested whether individuals with BDD (n=20), relative to individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD; n=20) and healthy controls (n=20), show an enhanced ability to detect differences in the symmetry of others’ faces, symmetry of dot arrays, and/or show a greater preference for symmetrical faces. Individuals with BDD were not significantly more accurate in detecting differences in facial symmetry or dot arrays relative to individuals with OCD and healthy controls. Individuals with OCD took longer to make facial symmetry judgments than did individuals in the other two groups. All participants, regardless of diagnostic group, preferred more symmetrical faces than nonsymmetrical ones. Taken together, our results do not support a heightened perceptual ability or evaluative preference for symmetry among individuals with BDD.