Elizabeth Rutherford Memorial Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Australia.
Elizabeth Rutherford Memorial Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Australia.
Behav Res Ther. 2022 Nov;158:104184. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2022.104184. Epub 2022 Aug 27.
Elevated facial appearance concern is characterised by highly frequent and distressing intrusive thoughts about appearance. Recent evidence suggests that enhanced readiness to make attractive (rather than unattractive) judgements of one's own and others' faces is associated with reduced experiencing of intrusive thoughts in high facial appearance concern individuals. The current study sought to experimentally evaluate the causal nature of this relationship. Females with high facial appearance concern (N = 123) completed the novel Judgement Dimension Manipulation (JDM) under conditions that required making 'attractive' judgments (i.e., only attractive faces were judged in terms of their attractiveness) or 'unattractive' judgments (i.e., only unattractive faces were judged in terms of their attractiveness). Prior to, and following the manipulation, participants completed a measure of intrusion frequency. Results revealed that the JDM was effective in inducing differential facial attractiveness judgements across the two groups and that this, in turn, impacted on intrusion frequency. Specifically, participants that were instructed to make 'attractive' judgments exhibited reduced intrusion frequency. These findings suggest that making attractive judgements of one's own and others' faces causally impacts on the experience of appearance-related intrusive thoughts and implicate that targeting this process may have potential therapeutic value.
面部外观关注度升高的特征是频繁且令人痛苦的关于外表的侵入性思维。最近的证据表明，增强对自己和他人面部的吸引力（而不是非吸引力）判断的准备程度与降低高面部外观关注度个体的侵入性思维体验有关。本研究旨在通过实验评估这种关系的因果性质。具有高面部外观关注度的女性（N=123）在需要做出“有吸引力”判断（即仅根据吸引力判断有吸引力的面孔）或“无吸引力”判断（即仅根据吸引力判断无吸引力的面孔）的情况下完成了新颖的判断维度操作（JDM）。在操作之前和之后，参与者都完成了一项侵入频率的测量。结果表明，JDM 在两组之间有效地诱导了不同的面部吸引力判断，而这反过来又影响了侵入频率。具体来说，被指示做出“有吸引力”判断的参与者表现出侵入频率降低。这些发现表明，对自己和他人的面部做出有吸引力的判断会对与外貌相关的侵入性思维的体验产生因果影响，并暗示针对这一过程可能具有潜在的治疗价值。
