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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 31, No. 10, 1400-1412 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167205277207

Dying To Be Thin: The Effects of Mortality Salience and Body Mass Index on Restricted Eating Among Women

Jamie L. Goldenberg

University of California-Davis, jgoldenb{at}cas.usf.edu

Jamie Arndt

University of Missouri-Columbia

Joshua Hart

University of California-Davis

Megan Brown

Boise State University

Following terror management theory, the authors suggest women’s striving to attain a thin physique is fueled in part by existential concerns. In three studies, women restricted consumption of a nutritious but fattening food in response to reminders of mortality (mortality salience; MS). When conducted in private (Study 1), this effect was found among women but not men; when replicated in a group setting in which social comparison was likely (Studies 2 and 3), only women who were relatively less successful attaining the thin ideal (i.e., high body mass index; BMI) restricted eating after MS. In Study 3, MS caused high BMI women to perceive themselves as more discrepant from their ideal thinness; this perceived failure mediated the effects of MS and BMI on eating behavior. Findings are discussed from a self-regulatory framework, which considered in the context of pressures for women to be thin, can shed light on health risk behavior.

Key Words: terror management • eating behavior • body mass index


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