The slender ideal and eating disorders: an interdisciplinary "telescope" model.
OBJECTIVE
This paper interprets eating disorders (including anorexia and bulimia) as one (nonfunctional) manifestation, in modern environments, of evolved psychological mechanisms which modulate the standard of feminine bodily attractiveness as a response to economic conditions.


METHODS
Published evidence from anthropology, sociology, and psychology was used to evaluate predictions that (1) where economic independence is possible, women favor a slender standard and (2) where women lack economic power, marriage tends to be favored and the standard becomes more curvaceous. These patterns were tested by correlating U.S. economic data with changing standards of bodily curvaceousness in Vogue and Playboy. Psychological and biological mechanisms by which the slender standard produces anorexia and bulimia were examined.


RESULTS
Published evidence and the empirical data suggest that the standard of bodily curvaceousness is determined by the economics of reproduction.


CONCLUSIONS
These ideas permit integration of the research on eating disorders in several disciplines and suggest many avenues for future enquiry.
Barber
N
N
Department of Psychology, Birmingham-Southern College, AL 35254, USA.
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D001828:Body Image; D002032:Bulimia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004954:Esthetics; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010551:Personality / Q000235:genetics; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics*; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013008:Somatotypes