The Study of Self-Deprecating Bias towards Own Bodies in Individuals with Body Dissatisfaction

Abstract

This study investigated whether women with high levels of body dissatisfaction (BD) have a self-deprecating bias towards bodies when evaluating bodies presented with their own or another woman’s faces. Overall, 382 undergraduate students completed the Eating Disorder Inventory-2. According to the upper and lower 15th percentile, the participants were catego rized into high BD (n=26) and low BD (n=27) groups. The participants were shown pictures demonstrating the characteris tics of their own, thin, average, fat, and muscular bodies with their own faces and the face of another woman. Gaze duration was measured using an eye-tracking system. In addition, all the participants were asked to rate their body attractiveness, emotional arousal, valence, body fat, and muscle mass using PsychoPy. The results showed that both groups gazed at their own and thin bodies longer than the low BD group when their own face was presented rather than with another woman’s face. Particularly, the high BD group rated their own bodies as less attractive, while rating thin bodes as more attractive than to the low BD group. This suggests that individuals with high BD have a self-deprecating bias toward their own bodies be cause of the double standards applied to themselves and others in the process of evaluation.