Implicit Attitudes to Female Body Shape in Spanish Women With High and Low Body Dissatisfaction

Abstract

Research on implicit attitudes to body image has grown substantially in recent years. The extant evidence reveals an implicit weight bias in the general population that has generally been interpreted in terms of anti-fat attitudes. However, research with the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) shows that this bias appears to be driven by pro-slim rather than anti-fat implicit attitudes. Besides, the only IRAP study of this sort conducted in Spain found no evidence of such implicit weight bias (with similarly positive attitudes to thinness and fatness). Given the existing differences in body dissatisfaction (BD) among diverse cultural contexts, we predicted that discrepancies in findings about implicit weight bias might be related to differences in BD amongst the samples in the different studies. This study explores whether women with extreme scores in BD (High vs. Low) show different patterns of attitudes to female body shape. Spanish female college students with extreme scores in the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ: high ≥ 104, percentile 80; low ≤ 52, percentile 20) completed an IRAP with pictures of overweight and underweight women as target stimuli and the words pleasant and unpleasant as labels. Participants also completed explicit ratings to the same stimuli and clinically relevant measures of body image related distress. Results showed an implicit weight bias only for women high in BD. While both groups showed equally positive implicit attitudes to thinness, only women with low BD showed implicit positive attitudes to fatness (and hence no bias). In turn, both groups presented a clear pro-thin/anti-fat explicit bias with positive ratings for underweight pictures and negative ratings for overweight pictures. The latter were stronger for the high BD group. Therefore, between-group differences were mainly driven by differences in attitudes to fatness (both implicit and explicit). Both implicit and explicit attitudes to fatness independently predicted eating disorders symptoms and other clinically relevant measures. These results are discussed in terms of their clinical implications.

Testing the discrepancy between actual and ideal body image with the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP)

“…Participants in Maroto-Expósito et al [ 28 ] showed positive attitudes of similar magnitude both to pictures of underweight and pictures of overweight models. This pattern of results was replicated in a later study from the same research group [ 27 ], but only for participants with very low levels of body dissatisfaction. Participants with high levels of body dissatisfaction showed a preference for underweight model pictures similar to that found in the aforementioned studies by Roddy and colleagues [ 30 , 31 ] (i.e.…”

“…Some of them, with samples comprising both female and male participants [ 29 – 31 ] found an implicit weight bias (an overall evaluative preference for pictures of thin models over pictures of overweight models) that was entirely attributable to pro-thin attitudes and not to anti-fat ones (i.e., scores based on trials presenting overweight models were indicative of a neutral attitude). Other studies, with female-only samples [ 27 , 28 ] did not find any implicit bias. Participants in Maroto-Expósito et al [ 28 ] showed positive attitudes of similar magnitude both to pictures of underweight and pictures of overweight models.…”

“…One way to further explore this interesting line of inquiry is by examining whether a more nuanced analysis of actual and ideal body image can be undertaken based on the findings of IRAP research on implicit attitudes to others’ body size [ 27 – 31 ]. These studies conducted more fine-grained analyses based on the calculation of specific scores for each trial type or for each category (e.g., Thin vs.…”

Are explicit and implicit affective attitudes toward different body shape categories related to the own body-satisfaction in young women? The role of mindfulness, self-compassion and social media activity

“…2. In line with the study of Hernández-López et al (2019), we assume a relation between implicit attitudes toward thinness and fatness and body satisfaction. 3.…”

“…The authors of this study did not find a relation between individual difference variables, like an appearance rating and an affective priming task, as well. The different results in the study of Hernández-López et al (2019) could again be attributed to the different methodology, first due to the application of the IRAP and second due to the investigation of women with extreme forms of body dissatisfaction only. Consequently, it is necessary to take the used implicit measurement into account when discussing about implicit attitudes toward body images.…”