Perception of bodyshapes by anorexics and mature and teenage controls

Three groups of females-Anorexic (mean age 28). Teenage (mean age 16), and Mature adults (mean age 27)-were shown four male and four female body drawings ranging from very thin to very fat and asked to rate them on four categories (attractive, healthy, confident, and popular) using a 10-point bipolar scale. A predicted and consistent pattern occurred, namely that the anorexics rated fatter women less attractive, less healthy, less confident and less popular than teenagers and mature females, while at the same time rating male body shapes more attractive than did the two other female groups. Both anorexic and teenage groups rated the thinner women as more attractive, healthy, confident, and popular than the mature females. Both mature and teenage females rated the fat female body shape more positively than did the anorexics. The implications of these findings are discussed.