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Visual attention mediates the relationship between body satisfaction and susceptibility to the body size adaptation effect

Body size misperception–the belief that one is larger or smaller than reality–affects a large and growing segment of the population. Recently, studies have shown that exposure to extreme body stimuli results in a shift in the point of subjective normality, suggesting that visual adaptation may be a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Stephen, Ian D., Sturman, Daniel, Stevenson, Richard J., Mond, Jonathan, Brooks, Kevin R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5791942/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29385137
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189855
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author Stephen, Ian D.
Sturman, Daniel
Stevenson, Richard J.
Mond, Jonathan
Brooks, Kevin R.
author_facet Stephen, Ian D.
Sturman, Daniel
Stevenson, Richard J.
Mond, Jonathan
Brooks, Kevin R.
author_sort Stephen, Ian D.
collection PubMed
description Body size misperception–the belief that one is larger or smaller than reality–affects a large and growing segment of the population. Recently, studies have shown that exposure to extreme body stimuli results in a shift in the point of subjective normality, suggesting that visual adaptation may be a mechanism by which body size misperception occurs. Yet, despite being exposed to a similar set of bodies, some individuals within a given geographical area will develop body size misperception and others will not. The reason for these individual difference is currently unknown. One possible explanation stems from the observation that women with lower levels of body satisfaction have been found to pay more attention to images of thin bodies. However, while attention has been shown to enhance visual adaptation effects in low (e.g. rotational and linear motion) and high level stimuli (e.g., facial gender), it is not known whether this effect exists in visual adaptation to body size. Here, we test the hypothesis that there is an indirect effect of body satisfaction on the direction and magnitude of the body fat adaptation effect, mediated via visual attention (i.e., selectively attending to images of thin over fat bodies or vice versa). Significant mediation effects were found in both men and women, suggesting that observers’ level of body satisfaction may influence selective visual attention to thin or fat bodies, which in turn influences the magnitude and direction of visual adaptation to body size. This may provide a potential mechanism by which some individuals develop body size misperception–a risk factor for eating disorders, compulsive exercise behaviour and steroid abuse–while others do not.
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spelling pubmed-57919422018-02-14 Visual attention mediates the relationship between body satisfaction and susceptibility to the body size adaptation effect Stephen, Ian D. Sturman, Daniel Stevenson, Richard J. Mond, Jonathan Brooks, Kevin R. PLoS One Research Article Body size misperception–the belief that one is larger or smaller than reality–affects a large and growing segment of the population. Recently, studies have shown that exposure to extreme body stimuli results in a shift in the point of subjective normality, suggesting that visual adaptation may be a mechanism by which body size misperception occurs. Yet, despite being exposed to a similar set of bodies, some individuals within a given geographical area will develop body size misperception and others will not. The reason for these individual difference is currently unknown. One possible explanation stems from the observation that women with lower levels of body satisfaction have been found to pay more attention to images of thin bodies. However, while attention has been shown to enhance visual adaptation effects in low (e.g. rotational and linear motion) and high level stimuli (e.g., facial gender), it is not known whether this effect exists in visual adaptation to body size. Here, we test the hypothesis that there is an indirect effect of body satisfaction on the direction and magnitude of the body fat adaptation effect, mediated via visual attention (i.e., selectively attending to images of thin over fat bodies or vice versa). Significant mediation effects were found in both men and women, suggesting that observers’ level of body satisfaction may influence selective visual attention to thin or fat bodies, which in turn influences the magnitude and direction of visual adaptation to body size. This may provide a potential mechanism by which some individuals develop body size misperception–a risk factor for eating disorders, compulsive exercise behaviour and steroid abuse–while others do not. Public Library of Science 2018-01-31 /pmc/articles/PMC5791942/ /pubmed/29385137 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189855 Text en © 2018 Stephen et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Stephen, Ian D.
Sturman, Daniel
Stevenson, Richard J.
Mond, Jonathan
Brooks, Kevin R.
Visual attention mediates the relationship between body satisfaction and susceptibility to the body size adaptation effect
title Visual attention mediates the relationship between body satisfaction and susceptibility to the body size adaptation effect
title_full Visual attention mediates the relationship between body satisfaction and susceptibility to the body size adaptation effect
title_fullStr Visual attention mediates the relationship between body satisfaction and susceptibility to the body size adaptation effect
title_full_unstemmed Visual attention mediates the relationship between body satisfaction and susceptibility to the body size adaptation effect
title_short Visual attention mediates the relationship between body satisfaction and susceptibility to the body size adaptation effect
title_sort visual attention mediates the relationship between body satisfaction and susceptibility to the body size adaptation effect
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5791942/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29385137
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189855
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