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Gazing at facial features increases dissociation and decreases attractiveness ratings in non-clinical females – A potential explanation for a common ritual in body dysmorphic disorder
Author(s) -
Anne Möllmann,
Antje Hunger,
Christina Dusend,
Marcel van den Hout,
Ulrike Buhlmann
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0219791
Subject(s) - body dysmorphic disorder , attractiveness , psychology , dissociation (chemistry) , cognition , physical attractiveness , cognitive psychology , clinical psychology , psychiatry , psychoanalysis , chemistry
Rituals, such as gazing at faces, are common in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and appear in cognitive-behavioral models as a maintaining factor. Rituals are also common in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In contrast to OCD, the proposed associations between rituals and intrusive thoughts/appearance preoccupation have not been empirically investigated for BDD. We examined if the assumed effect of gazing rituals on attractiveness ratings exists and if it is associated with dissociation. In an experiment, we asked N = 65 non-clinical females to focus on the nose of a photographed face at pre- and post-test. In between, participants gazed at the nose of either the same (relevant gazing) or another face (irrelevant gazing). We found increasing dissociation after gazing in both conditions and a differentially stronger decrease of attractiveness ratings in the relevant gazing condition. Our findings support the hypothesized effect of gazing rituals on attractiveness evaluation in cognitive-behavioral models for BDD.

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