An attentional bias for thin bodies and its relation to body dissatisfaction

Abstract Research suggests that humans have an attentional bias for the rapid detection of emotionally valenced stimuli, and that such a bias might be shaped by clinical psychological states. The current research extends this work to examine the relation between body dissatisfaction and an attentional bias for thin/idealized body shapes. Across two experiments, undergraduates completed a gender-consistent body dissatisfaction measure, and a dot-probe paradigm to measure attentional biases for thin versus heavy bodies. Results indicated that men ( n  = 21) and women ( n  = 18) show an attentional bias for bodies that correspond to their own gender (Experiment 1), and that high body dissatisfaction among men ( n  = 69) and women ( n  = 89) predicts an attentional bias for thin same-gender bodies after controlling for body mass index (BMI) (Experiment 2). This research provides a new direction for studying the attentional and cognitive underpinnings of the relation between body dissatisfaction and eating disorders.