DO WEIGHT-PREOCCUPIED WOMEN MISINTERPRET AMBIGUOUS STIMULI RELATED TO BODY-SIZE

High and low weight-preoccupied women were instructed to imagine themselves in situations described by ambiguous sentences related to body size. These ambiguous sentences could be interpreted in either a positive or negative manner. In a subsequent recognition memory test, subjects highly preoccupied with body weight were found to recall their imagery of the body-related situations with a negative interpretation. The interpretation of imagery to ambiguous performance and health-related situations was found to be unrelated to weight preoccupation. These findings suggest that interpretational biases may be a result of processing information which is of emotional concern to the individual, and that the biased interpretation of ambiguous body-related stimuli may function to maintain excessive preoccupation with body size.