title: Time course of attentional biases toward body shapes: The impact of body dissatisfaction.
abstract: Using a dot-probe discrimination task and a between-subjects design, we examined the time course of attentional biases (facilitated attention, delayed disengagement, and avoidance) toward thin versus fat bodies and explored the influence of body dissatisfaction (BD) on attention allocation among a sample of 163 women from the general population. Three stimulus presentation times were used: 100ms, 500ms, and 1500ms. We also used neutral body-shape-related stimuli as neutral stimuli related to the concept of interest to overcome the limitations of previous studies. At 500ms, the results highlighted delayed disengagement from very thin and negatively assessed bodies among women with high BD. This mechanism, which leads to attentional focalization on bodies that are difficult to achieve, might be considered dysfunctional because it may maintain or reinforce BD. Results at 100ms and 1500ms, as well as results for fat bodies, were not conclusive.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Psychopathology and Neuropsychology Unit, Psychology Department, FPSE, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Campus Biotech, CISA, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. Electronic address: Joanna.Moussally@unige.ch.
authors.forename: Joanna Myriam
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Moussally
authors.affiliation: Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Campus Biotech, CISA, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Consumer Decision and Sustainable Behavior Lab, Psychology Department, FPSE, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. Electronic address: Tobias.Brosch@unige.ch.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brosch
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Psychopathology and Neuropsychology Unit, Psychology Department, FPSE, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Campus Biotech, CISA, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Cognitive Psychopathology Unit, Cognitive Sciences Department, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium. Electronic address: Martial.VanDerLinden@unige.ch.
authors.forename: Martial
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van der Linden
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000070379:Attentional Bias / Q000502:physiology*; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attentional time course; Body dissatisfaction; Delayed disengagement; Neutral body-shape-related stimuli; Selective attention