Implicit Attitudes Towards Weight, One’s Own Body and its Relation to Food in Women with Overweight and Obesity

Abstract

Background: Theoretical models emphasize the importance of implicit self-related weight attitudes for the maintenance of body dissatisfaction. Even though body dissatisfaction is increased in obesity, only general implicit weight-related attitudes have been investigated so far. Therefore, the present study assessed self-related and general implicit weight attitudes and their relation to food. Methods: Women with overweight and obesity (OW; n = 71) and women with normal weight (NW; n = 44) completed three implicit tasks to (1) assess attitudes towards persons with normal weight and overweight in general, (2) attitudes towards one’s own body, and (3) the association between one’s own body and food. Results: While both groups showed an implicit preference towards persons with normal weight relative to persons with overweight, only women with OW showed a significantly stronger negative implicit attitude towards their own body and a stronger association between food and one’s own body. Additionally, self-related and not general implicit weight attitudes correlated significantly with body dissatisfaction and eating pathology. Conclusions: The results highlight the importance of self-related implicit attitudes and their relation to body dissatisfaction and eating pathology in women with overweight and obesity. Targeting these self-related implicit weight attitudes might help to improve obesity treatments.