Body Dissatisfaction Revisited: On the Importance of Implicit Beliefs about Actual and Ideal Body Image.

ABSTRACT: Body dissatisfaction (i.e., a negative attitude towards one's own physical appearance) is assumed to originate from a perceived discrepancy between the actual physical appearance (i.e., actual body image) and the desired ideal state of the body (i.e., ideal body image). We assessed implicit beliefs about these two aspects of the body image independently using two Relational Responding Tasks (RRT) in a sample of participants who were either low or high in explicitly reported body dissatisfaction. As hypothesized, differences in body dissatisfaction exerted a differential influence on the two RRT scores. The implicit belief that one is thin was less pronounced in participants who were strongly dissatisfied with their body relative to participants who were more satisfied with their body. The

SUBMITTER: Heider N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6194529 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature