Reuters: Psychologist discusses research on appearance-based anxiety

An article distributed by Reuters news service reports that a UB psychologist has found that some people become anxious and expect that they will be rejected by others based on their physical appearance, and quotes Lora Park, assistant professor of psychology and director of the Self and Motivation Research Laboratory. "Both men and women who reported being sensitive to appearance-based rejection were preoccupied with their body and weight in unhealthy ways," she said. "They avoided eating when hungry, exercised compulsively and engaged in bingeing and purging. What I found fascinating was that even after controlling for low self-esteem, neuroticism, insecure attachment styles -- things that have been shown in past research to predict eating disorders -- high appearance concerns still had this unique predictive power." Go to article.