by
Lizzie Bell and Vanessa Bobadilla


Approximately 11 million Americans suffer
from eating disorders.
Viewing thin women in the media negatively
impacts women’s body image satisfaction.

Adaptive reproductive suppression
◦ Unfavorable conditions cause some female
mammals to temporarily halt fertility through the
restriction of eating.
 An example of such conditions is a perceived lack of
social support for childrearing and local norms
valuing women in the workforce.

Adaptive mechanisms for intrasexual
competition.
◦ Attraction tactics
 Heterosexual Men: youth + fertility = physical
attractiveness/desirable mate
 Homosexual Men: youth + physical attractiveness =
desirable mate


Study 1 hypothesis: Cues to intrasexual
competition among women, but not among
men, would be manifest in concerns of
thinness and restrictive eating attitudes.
Study 2 hypothesis: Intrasexual competition
cues should also lead to more negative body
image in heterosexual women and gay men.


Restrictive eating attitudes more prevalent
in women than men.
Methods
◦ Priming intrasexual competition
 Profile picture with self-description (competitive vs.
noncompetitive)
◦ Eating attitudes
 26-item Eating Attitudes Test
 Higher EAT scores are associated with more restrictive and eatingaverse attitudes.
◦ Competitiveness and appearance satisfaction
 Questions (1= strongly disagree, 9= strongly agree)

Results
Fig. 1. Influence of intrasexual competition motives on eating restriction

Discussion
◦ Exposure to competitive vs. noncompetitive samesex others led to changes in women’s, but not in
men’s eating attitudes.
◦ This pattern of results is consistent with women’s
desire to be thin, showing intrasexual competition.

Intrasexual competition cues should lead to
more negative body image in heterosexual
women and gay men.
• Methods (Same as study 1’s)
 PLUS…
 34-item Body Shape Questionnaire
 Kinsey Scale of Sexual Orientation

(0= exclusively heterosexual, 6=exclusively homosexual)

Results
Fig. 2. Influence of intrasexual competition motives on
eating restriction in heterosexual individuals
Fig. 3. Influence of intrasexual competition motives on
eating restriction in homosexual individuals

Results
◦ Body Image Concerns
 Heterosexual women and gay men reported greater body
image concerns in the competitive condition than in the
noncompetitive condition.
 Heterosexual men and lesbian women did not differ in body
image concerns between conditions.

Discussion
◦ Exposure to intrasexual competition cues had a very
different effect on eating attitudes on body image
depending on individual’s sex and sexual orientation.
◦ These findings support the intrasexual competition
hypothesis for thinness-related eating restriction.

As predicted by the hypotheses, cues to
intrasexual competition led heterosexual
women and gay men to report worse body
image and more restrictive eating attitudes.
◦ Results extend beyond the adaptive reproductive
suppression hypothesis.
◦ Because manipulations of intrasexual competition
consisted of pictures of normal-weight, averagelooking peers, findings suggest triggers for
restrictive eating may be broader than previously
considered.

These findings support the idea that the
ultimate explanation for eating disorders is
related to intrasexual competition,
particularly in heterosexual women and gay
men, whose mates value physical
attractiveness and thinness.