title: The meaning of beauty: implicit and explicit self-esteem and attractiveness beliefs in body dysmorphic disorder.
abstract: Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by imagined or slight defects in one's appearance. We evaluated implicit and explicit biases among individuals diagnosed with BDD (n=21), individuals with subclinical BDD symptoms (n=21), and healthy control participants (n=21). Specifically, we used the Implicit Association Test [IAT; Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: the implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464-1480] to examine automatic associations related to self-esteem, associations between attractive and important, and a physical attractiveness stereotype (associations between attractive and competent). BDD participants had significantly lower implicit self-esteem, relative to control participants, and the subclinical BDD participants were intermediate between these groups. Although no group differences were observed on the implicit Attractive Important IAT; as predicted, BDD participants had significantly stronger implicit associations between attractive and competent than the other groups, in line with a common stereotype about physical attractiveness. Both the Attractive Competent IAT and Self-Esteem IAT were significant predictors of BDD symptom severity, and distress and avoidance during a mirror exposure task. Findings are discussed in light of cognitive-behavioral models of BDD.
authors.affiliation: Humboldt University of Berlin, Department of Clinical Psychology, Rudower Chaussee 18, 12489 Berlin, Germany. ulrike.buhlmann@hu-berlin.de
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Buhlmann
authors.forename: Bethany A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Teachman
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Naumann
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fehlinger
authors.forename: Winfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rief
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001504:Beauty; D001828:Body Image; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D003469:Culture; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012928:Social Desirability; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires