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Facial femininity and perceptions of eating disorders: A reverse-correlation study.

Author
Abstract
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Eating disorders are prevalent in college students but college students are not accurate in identifying the presence of eating disorders (ED) especially when race is involved. Much has been researched about diagnostic ability in vignette form, but little outside of this. For example, it is not known how facial features, such as perceived femininity, may affect observers' beliefs about the likelihood of disordered eating depending on race. In the present study, we examined how biases regarding facial appearance and disordered eating may differ depending on the race of face images. Using a technique called reverse correlation, we estimated the image templates associated with perceived likelihood of disordered eating using both White and Black Faces. Specifically, we recruited 28 college students who categorized White and Black faces according to perceived likelihood of an eating disorder diagnosis in the presence of image noise. Subsequently, we asked Amazon Mechanical Turk participants to categorize the resulting race-specific face templates according to perceived ED likelihood and femininity. The templates corresponding to a high likelihood of an ED diagnosis were distinguished from low-likelihood images by this second independent participant sample at above-chance levels. For Black faces, the templates corresponding to a high likelihood of an ED diagnosis were also selected as more feminine than low-likelihood templates at an above-chance level, whereas there was no such effect found for White faces. These results suggest that stereotyped beliefs about both femininity and the likelihood of disordered eating may interact with perceptual processes.

Year of Publication
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0
Journal
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PloS one
Volume
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16
Issue
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8
Number of Pages
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e0255766
Date Published
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2021
URL
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https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255766
DOI
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10.1371/journal.pone.0255766
Short Title
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PLoS One
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