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Body-image disturbance comprises two components. The first is perceptual in nature, and is measured by a discrepancy between one’s actual body and perceived self-image (“perceived–actual discrepancy”). The other component is affective, and is measured by a discrepancy between one’s perceived self-image and ideal body image (“perceived–ideal discrepancy”). The present study evaluated the relationships between body-image disturbance and characteristics of eating disorders such as symptoms and related personality traits. In a psychophysiological experiment, female university students (mean ± SD age = 21.0 ± 1.38 years) were presented with silhouette images of their own bodies that were distorted in terms of width. The participants were asked whether each silhouette image was more overweight than their actual or ideal body images. Eating-disorder characteristics were assessed using six factors from the Japanese version of the Eating Disorder Inventory 2 (EDI2). We found that perceived–actual discrepancies correlated with negative self-evaluation (i.e., factor 3 of the EDI2), whereas perceived–ideal discrepancies correlated with dissatisfaction with one’s own body (i.e., factor 2 of EDI2). These results imply that distinct psychological mechanisms underlie the two components of body-image disturbance.

2020) Taking another's perspective promotes right parieto-frontal activity that reflects open-minded thought, Social Neuroscience, 15:3, 282-295, ABSTRACTCritical thinking (CT) is important for consensus building. Although the practice of CT using debate is widely used to improve open-minded thought, the cognitive processes underlying this improvement remain poorly understood. Here, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to assess how neural responses while considering another's opinion are changed by CT practice and to determine whether the cortical network showing activation changes related to personality traits is relevant to consensus building. A total of 52 healthy participants were divided into three groups for an intervention; the participants read another's reasoning regarding a controversial issue and judged whether this person's viewpoint was affirmative during fMRI measurements. The intervention required them to prepare speech texts from a designated viewpoint based on both themselves and others. Compared to the control group, the group who took another's perspective showed enhanced activation of the right parieto-frontal network, that has been implicated in belief update, cognitive reappraisal of emotion, and self-perspective inhibition. Additionally, activation of the orbitofrontal cortex was negatively correlated with a stubbornness index. The results provide the first neural evidence of the effects of CT practice and support the notion that open-minded thought underlies the benefits of this practice. ARTICLE HISTORY

Eating disorder tendencies are psychological characteristics that are prevalent in healthy young females and are known to be among the risk factors for eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa. People with greater eating disorder tendencies strongly associate sweet and fatty foods with weight gain and strictly avoid consuming such foods. However, little is known about how eating disorder tendencies influence the association between taste and body shape impression. Research on crossmodal correspondences suggests that people preferentially associate sweet tastes with round shapes, and individual differences affect the degree of such associations. This study investigates how the degree of taste–shape matching is related to eating disorder tendencies with a preliminary investigation of what mediates this relationship. Two experiments were conducted: in Experiment 1, healthy participants rated the degree of association between basic taste words (sweet/sour/salty/bitter) and roundness of shape and subsequently completed questionnaires addressing eating disorder tendencies. In Experiment 2, participants answered additional questionnaires addressing obsessiveness, dichotomous thinking, and self-esteem. The results of Experiment 1 indicated a positive correlation between drive for thinness, which is one indicator of an eating disorder tendency, and the degree of matching sweetness to round shape. Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1 and revealed the mediating effect of obsessiveness. These findings suggest a relationship between individual differences in taste–shape matching and eating disorder tendency and the preliminary mediating role of obsessiveness. The present study provides new insight into the role of sweet–round matching in eating disorder tendencies and the associated psychological mechanisms.