title: Ancestral Mechanisms in Modern Environments : Impact of Competition and Stressors on Body Image and Dieting Behavior.
abstract: It is commonly assumed that the desire for a thin female physique and its pathological expression in eating disorders result from a social pressure for thinness. However, such widespread behavior may be better understood not merely as the result of arbitrary social pressure, but as an exaggerated expression of behavior that may have once been adaptive. The reproductive suppression hypothesis suggests that natural selection shaped a mechanism for adjusting female reproduction to socioecological conditions by altering the amount of body fat. In modern Western culture, social and ecological cues, which would have signaled the need for temporary postponement of reproduction in ancestral environments, may now be experienced to an unprecedented intensity and duration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Redlands, Redlands, CA, 92223, USA. catherine_salmon@redlands.edu.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Salmon
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, V5A 1S6.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, V5A 1S6.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dane
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, V5A 1S6.
authors.forename: Oonagh
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Zuberbier
keywords: Adaptation; Anorexic behavior; Eating disorders; Environment; Reproductive suppression