Evidence of attentional bias toward body stimuli in men

Abstract

AbstractOver the past 30 years, attentional bias for body shape and weight content has been implicated in the precipitation and maintenance of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. Although the existence of this bias toward body stimuli is well-established in female populations, it is comparatively understudied in men. This review aimed to examine the nature of this visual attentional bias toward male bodies in male samples across a range of different attentional paradigms, including eye-tracking, dot-probe, and the visual search task. Results were heterogenous, finding some evidence that men with higher body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptoms demonstrated an attentional bias toward desirable bodies of other men, and undesirable features of their own bodies. These results suggest that schematic cognitive models of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders body may also be applicable to men, however more research is needed.