Time course of attentional biases toward body shapes: The impact of body dissatisfaction

Joanna Myriam Moussally; Tobias Brosch; Martial Van der Linden

doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2016.09.006

Time course of attentional biases toward body shapes: The impact of body dissatisfaction

Body Image. 2016 Dec:19:159-168. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2016.09.006. Epub 2016 Oct 15.

Authors

Joanna Myriam Moussally¹, Tobias Brosch², Martial Van der Linden³

Affiliations

¹ Cognitive Psychopathology and Neuropsychology Unit, Psychology Department, FPSE, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Campus Biotech, CISA, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. Electronic address: Joanna.Moussally@unige.ch.
² Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Campus Biotech, CISA, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Consumer Decision and Sustainable Behavior Lab, Psychology Department, FPSE, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. Electronic address: Tobias.Brosch@unige.ch.
³ Cognitive Psychopathology and Neuropsychology Unit, Psychology Department, FPSE, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Campus Biotech, CISA, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Cognitive Psychopathology Unit, Cognitive Sciences Department, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium. Electronic address: Martial.VanDerLinden@unige.ch.

PMID: 27750205
DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2016.09.006

Abstract

Using a dot-probe discrimination task and a between-subjects design, we examined the time course of attentional biases (facilitated attention, delayed disengagement, and avoidance) toward thin versus fat bodies and explored the influence of body dissatisfaction (BD) on attention allocation among a sample of 163 women from the general population. Three stimulus presentation times were used: 100ms, 500ms, and 1500ms. We also used neutral body-shape-related stimuli as neutral stimuli related to the concept of interest to overcome the limitations of previous studies. At 500ms, the results highlighted delayed disengagement from very thin and negatively assessed bodies among women with high BD. This mechanism, which leads to attentional focalization on bodies that are difficult to achieve, might be considered dysfunctional because it may maintain or reinforce BD. Results at 100ms and 1500ms, as well as results for fat bodies, were not conclusive.

Keywords: Attentional time course; Body dissatisfaction; Delayed disengagement; Neutral body-shape-related stimuli; Selective attention.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Attentional Bias / physiology*
Body Image / psychology*
Female
Humans
Personal Satisfaction*
Time Factors
Young Adult