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What do I look like? Perceptual confidence in bulimia nervosa

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Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Cognitive confidence, a type of metacognition referring to confidence in one’s cognitive abilities (e.g., memory, perception, etc.), has been identified as relevant to eating disorders (EDs) using self-report measures. Repeated checking has been found to elicit decreases in perceptual confidence in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The purpose of the present study was to experimentally investigate perceptual confidence, a type of cognitive confidence, in EDs. Specifically, this construct was investigated in the context of body checking, a behaviour with similarities to compulsive checking as observed in OCD. Women with bulimia nervosa (BN; n = 21) and healthy controls (HC; n = 24) participated in the study. There were no group differences with regards to perceptual confidence at baseline F(1, 43) = 0.5, p = 0.48, ηp2 = 0.01, but a significant difference was observed post-checking F(1, 43) = 7.79, p = 0.008, ηp2 = 0.15, which was accounted for by significant decreases in perceptual confidence in the BN group F(1, 43) = 13.31, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.24. Similar to compulsive checking in OCD, body checking may paradoxically decrease confidence regarding one’s appearance.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec—Santé (#33663) and by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (#114905). The authors would also like to acknowledge the statistical support provided by Charles-Édouard Giguère, MSc.

Funding

This study was funded by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec—Santé (#33663) and by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (#114905).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center, Montréal Mental Health University Institute, 7331 Hochelaga, Montreal, QC, H1N 3V2, Canada

    Samantha Wilson, Frederick Aardema & Kieron O’Connor

  2. Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, 90 Vincent d’Indy, Montreal, QC, H2V 2S9, Canada

    Samantha Wilson

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Université de Montréal, 2900 Édouard-Montpetit, Montreal, QC, H3T 1J4, Canada

    Frederick Aardema & Kieron O’Connor

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  1. Samantha Wilson
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Correspondence to Samantha Wilson.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Wilson, S., Aardema, F. & O’Connor, K. What do I look like? Perceptual confidence in bulimia nervosa. Eat Weight Disord 25, 177–183 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0542-x

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