The revolting body:Self-disgust as a key factor in anorexia nervosa

In this article, we present a theoretical model that points to disgust-induced avoidance as a mechanism that can help explain the persistent and excessive food restriction in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN). Disgust is characterized by intense negative feelings of revulsion and an overwhelming and irresistible urge to avoid potential disgust elicitors. When eating, or even the prospect of eating, elicits overwhelming feelings of disgust in individuals with AN, this could explain why food restriction persists even when someone is in a state of starvation. Following this model, disgust is elicited by the expected impact of food on the own body ("becoming fat") resulting in body-related self-disgust. We argue that limiting food intake may serve to avoid self-disgust. This implies that when self-disgust remains unchanged after treatment of AN, residual levels of self-disgust after treatment could make individuals vulnerable to relapse

Negative Body Image Is Not Related to Spontaneous Body-Scaled Motoric Behavior in Undergraduate Women

Body image disturbance is a core characteristic of anorexia nervosa, which might be grounded in distortions in schematic body representations. In line with this, several studies showed that when walking through door-like apertures of different widths, individuals with anorexia nervosa move as if their bodies are larger than they actually are. They turn their body at a higher aperture/shoulder width ratio than healthy individuals. We examined whether oversized body-scaled motoric behaviors may not be restricted to anorexia nervosa but concern a general feature of negative body image attitudes. Therefore, we investigated the relation between negative body image as assessed with shape and weight concerns subscales of the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire and aperture/shoulder width turning ratios in women with a healthy weight (n = 62). We found that a more negative body image was unrelated to higher aperture/shoulder width turning ratios. Bayes analysis provided moderate evidence for the null hypothesis that spontaneous body-scaled motoric behaviors are not involved in negative body image. Future studies should disentangle whether being underweight per se is related to distinctive spontaneous body-scaled motoric behaviors or whether an “oversized” body schema is a unique characteristic of anorexia nervosa, potentially contributing to the persistence of this disorder

Implicit measures of actual versus ideal body image : relations with self-reported body dissatisfaction and dieting behaviors

Body dissatisfaction refers to a negative appreciation of one’s own body stemming from a discrepancy between how one perceives his/her body (actual body image) and how he/she wants it to be (ideal body image). To circumvent the limitations of self-report measures of body image, measures were developed that allow for a distinction between actual and ideal body image at the implicit level. The first goal of the present study was to investigate whether self-reported body dissatisfaction is related to implicit measures of actual and ideal body image as captured by the Relational Responding Task (RRT). Secondly, we examined whether these RRT measures were related to several indices of dieting behavior. Women high in body dissatisfaction (n = 30) were characterized by relatively strong implicit I-am-fat beliefs, whereas their implicit I-want-to-be-thinner beliefs were similar to individuals low in body dissatisfaction (n = 37). Implicit body image beliefs showed no added value over explicit body image beliefs in predicting body dissatisfaction and dieting behavior. These findings support the idea that the interplay between ideal and actual body image drives (self-reported) body dissatisfaction. However, strong support for the view that it would be critical to differentiate between explicit and implicit body image beliefs is missing

Subjective disgust and facial electromyography responses towards unedited and morphed overweight self-pictures in women with varying levels of eating disorder symptomatology

Individuals with an eating disorder (ED) often report to be disgusted by their body. Body-related self-disgust could play an important role in the development and maintenance of EDs. We investigated if women with relatively high ED symptom scores indeed respond with disgust upon exposure to their body as indexed by facial electromyography (fEMG) of the m. levator labii superioris and self-report. Given that one's self-disgust may increase/decrease depending on the relative distance of the own body to the thin ideal, we also assessed women's disgust for overweight- and thin-morphs of their body. Female undergraduate students (N = 104) were photographed and presented with their (morphed) body pictures, next to disgust-relevant and overweight body control pictures. Higher levels of ED symptoms were associated with stronger self-reported disgust to unedited body-pictures and overweight-morphs. Disgust to thin-morphs was unrelated to ED symptoms. Participants generally showed heightened facial disgust towards overweight morphs, yet the strength of facial disgust was unrelated to ED symptoms. Thus, the findings provide evidence for the involvement of heightened body-related self-disgust in ED symptomatology, albeit only on the basis of self-report

Reducing body dissatisfaction by means of an evaluative conditioning procedure in undergraduate women:A replication study

The aim was to investigate whether a computer-based evaluative conditioning (EC) procedure using positive social feedback is effective in enhancing body satisfaction. Prior findings in three small-scale studies were mixed showing positive effects in pre-clinical samples, but not in a clinical sample of eating disorder patients. Therefore, our main goal was to replicate the original finding of Martijn et al. (2010) in a well-powered unselected sample of 129 female undergraduates. We assessed the impact of EC on questionnaire measures of body satisfaction as well as on affective ratings of the participants' body pictures used in the task to verify whether the EC procedure was effective in heightening the subjective valence of these pictures. Supporting the validity of the current EC procedure, participants in the experimental condition rated their own pictures after the training as more positive than participants in the control condition. However, this effect of the EC procedure did not transfer to the self-report indices of body satisfaction. In addition, women with relatively high body concern did not profit more from the EC procedure than women with relatively low body concern. Together, these findings suggest that the EC procedure in its present form is not ready for use as an intervention for improving body satisfaction. However, it seems worthwhile to investigate in future studies how the EC procedure can be further strengthened in a way that effects on stimulus ratings eventually also 'spill over' to the level of self-reported body satisfaction.</p

What’s not to like? Enhancing women’s body satisfaction by means of an evaluative conditioning procedure with positive social feedback

The prevalence of a negative body image among women is high. Because of its serious consequences for individuals’ mental health, there is an urgent need to improve current body image interventions. Recent studies using evaluative conditioning to strengthen the association between women’s body and positive (social) stimuli have shown promising results. In two experimental studies, we tested whether incorporating more age appropriate positive social stimuli as unconditioned stimuli (USs) can strengthen the conditioning procedure as a means to enhance women’s body satisfaction. In the experimental condition, participants’ body pictures were systematically followed by the Facebook like-button and youthful smiling faces (study 1, experimental condition: n = 68; control condition: n = 67) or positive Emojis (study 2, experimental condition: n = 64; control condition: n = 67). The results indicated that neither conditioning procedure enhanced participants’ body satisfaction more than a control procedure, and in both studies, there was no valence transfer from the positive USs to the body pictures. Thus, incorporation of age appropriate USs did not result in the anticipated conditioning effects. These findings challenge the utility of current evaluative conditioning procedures as an intervention technique to address a negative body image

Averting Repulsion? Body-Directed Self-Disgust and Autobiographical Memory Retrieval

A negative body image and appraisals of disgust with one’s (physical) self reflect schematic representations of one’s body, which we classified under the term repulsive body image (RBI). We propose that an RBI biases autobiographical memory processing towards schema (=RBI)-congruent and over-general memories. Women with high (HRBI; n = 61) and low (LRBI; n = 64) levels of habitual body-directed self-disgust were asked to retrieve memories in response to abstract body words in a minimal instruction Autobiographical Memory Test. Compared to the LRBI group, the HRBI group recalled a higher number of autobiographical memories that involved appraisals of the own body as disgusting, and reported elevated habitual tendencies to prevent experiencing disgust towards the own body. Neither RBI scores nor tendencies to prevent experiencing body-related disgust were found to be statistically significant predictors of memory specificity. The overall low memory specificity could be indicative of a need for more sensitive measures of autobiographical memory specificity to examine disgust-driven avoidance at the memory level. Nevertheless, the current results may indicate that disgust-related memories and the prevention of experiencing disgust towards the own body could play a role in body image concerns