Patients with obesity show reduced memory for others’ body shape

Social comparison theory assumes that individuals regularly compare themselves to others and that the comparisons are relevant for their self-esteem. For individuals with obesity, these social comparisons will yield a negative outcome with respect to body shape in the majority of social contacts. It is proposed that, when confronted with other persons, individuals with obesity avoid social comparisons on the dimension of body shape. Using a multinomial account of social categorization, 19 female psychotherapy patients with morbid obesity were compared to 19 non-obese female psychotherapy patients. As predicted, results reveal reduced memory for body shape categories in patients with obesity, indicating a reduced processing of body shape information.