Symptoms of dysmorphia, social media presentation and
intrasexual competition. An evolutionary perspective
Cristina Ene
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest
INTRODUCTION
Body dysmorphia is increasingly common among women and adolescents. Sub-
clinical symptoms of dysmorphia (or strongly negative perception and excessive
concern about one or more physical traits) predispose women to the preference
for aesthetic interventions (Crerand et al., 2006), inadequacy, anxiety, low self-
esteem (Hakim et al., 2021) and obsessive comparisons with other real-life
women, as well as through exposure to social media (Bowyer et al., 2016;
Giulio, 2020).
From an evolutionary perspective, men will prefer women with a higher
reproductive value in the case of long-term relationships, a characteristic defined
by future reproductive capacity. Thus, physical traits such as flawless skin, fit
body, long and shiny hair or facial symmetry become unconscious standards
(Buss & Schmitt, 1993).
Therefore, the social pressure felt by women gradually metamorphosed into an
intrasexual competition that had a negative impact on their mental health.
In terms of intrasexual competition, and implicitly social comparison, women
turn romantic/reproductive success into a fierce struggle related only to their
physical appearance, reaching positive attitudes towards such aesthetic
procedures and harsh comparisons in social media.
Thus, the typical thoughts of dysmorphia can strongly fuel the inferiority felt in
competition with other women, their presentation in social media and the
inability to form a romantic relationship. Therefore, they can get to be immersed
in „ I am defective, all other women are ok ” and make drastic decisions about
their physical appearance, even if there are significant personal costs.
OBJECTIVE
We aim to test whether women with subclinical symptoms of dysmorphic
disorder are more likely to have surgery and if they change their online behavior
(social presentation, online comparison, social media stalking, or experience
felling such as fear of missing out) and preference for cosmetic surgery.
More than that, we also investigated whether intrasexual competition has a
mediating explanatory role between the subclinical symptoms of dysmorphia
and these behaviors in the online environment.
METHOD
Participants and Procedure
Our sample was 154 (Mage = 22.08, SD = 0.43 ) women. All the participants
consented to participate. The measures were administered online using the
Google Forms platform.
Measures
Sub-clinical symptoms of dysmorphic disorder were measured using Body
Dysmorphic Disorder Modification of the Y-BOCS (BDD-YBOCS; Phillips et
al., 1997).
Preference for cosmetic surgery was measured using Acceptance of Cosmetic
Surgery (Henderson-King & Henderson-King, 2005).
Social media stalking was measured using Social Media Stalking (Dhir et al.,
2021) which assessed the participants' level of engagement in relation to stalking
other women on social media.
Online comparation was measured using Online Social Comparison (Gibbons
& Buunk, 1999; Latif et al., 2021) and assesses participants' tendency to
compare online with other women.
The fear of being excluded through the online environment was assessed
Fear of Missing Out (Przybylski et al., 2013), which measures the level of fear
of participants to miss something online
Intrasexual competition was measured using the Intrasexual Competition Scale
(Buunk & Fisher, 2009).
Data Analysis
Pearson correlation and linear regression analysis were used to assess the
correlations and the power of the relationship between current research
variables. The mediating effect of intrasexual competition was statistically
analyzed by mediation analysis. Statistical analyzes were performed using
JAMOVI.
RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2019
www.PosterPresentations.com
RESULTS
Regarding the preference prediction for cosmetic surgery, the model is
statistically significant with F (1, 152) = 7,600, p < .01, predicting 4% of
variance. Therefore, the preference for cosmetic surgery is statistically
significantly predicted by the sub-clinical symptoms characteristic of
dysmorphic disorder (β = -.21, p < .01).
For the relationship between subclinical symptoms characteristic of dysmorphic
disorder and social media stalking, the model being statistically significant with
F (1,152) = 30.44, p < .01, predicting 16% of variance (β = .40, p < .01). These
symptoms are also a predictor for online social comparison, the model being
statistically significant and in this case with F (1,152) = 54.57, p < .01,
predicting 26% of variance (β = .51, p < .01).
In addition, the subclinical symptoms characteristic of the predictive
dysmorphic disorder and fear of missing out, the model being statistically
significant with F (1,152) = 48.23, p < .01, predicting 24% of variance ( β =
.49, p < .01 ).
The results show that intrasexual competition is a partial mediator in the
relationship between subclinical symptoms characteristic of dysmorphic and
social media stalking, online social comparison and fear of missing out.
Therefore, one of the reasons why women who have symptoms of dysmorphic
disorder are more likely to engage in compulsive behaviors to check social
media, harshly compare with other women and feel that they are not complete
as women may be the fact that they will unconsciously engage a strong
intrasexual competition.
CONCLUSIONS
These findings can be explained by the fact that the symptoms of dysmorphia,
being closely related to the image of women on her body and a fragile self-
esteem, creates a great fear of not being disabled as a woman, significantly
reducing her chances of reproductive success.
Therefore, in order not to reach the situation of not achieving success in a
romantic and sexual way, women with symptoms of dysmorphia will be focused
on intrusive thoughts related to their value as women or romantic partners, as an
engine that feeds their sexual drive and physical appearance.
Thus explaining the intensity of negative emotions and thoughts characteristic of dysmorphia
in relation to the unconscious struggle for the drive to meet the need to reproduce, one of the
basic needs of a human being.
So, they end up consuming a lot of resources in this direction, constantly comparing
themselves, being very critical with themselves, putting very high expectations, seeking to be
„ perfect ” for mating.
However, given that the group of participants was composed of women with subclinical
symptoms, there seems to be a limit that they unconsciously set on the risks assumed in the
mating process. Women with subclinical symptoms are not encouraged by intrasexual
competition to resort to cosmetic surgery.
REFERENCES
Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual Strategies Theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating.
Psychological Review, 100(2), 204–232. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.100.2.204
Crerand, C. E., Franklin, M. E., & Sarwer, D. B. (2006). Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Cosmetic Surgery:
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 118(7), 167e–180e.
https://doi.org/10.1097/01.prs.0000242500.28431.24
Giulio, P. (2020). The concept of altered perception in “body dysmorphic disorder”: The subtle border between
the abuse of selfies in social networks and cosmetic surgery, between socially accepted dysfunctionality and
the pathological condition. Journal of Neurology, Neurological Science and Disorders, 6(1), 001–007.
https://doi.org/10.17352/jnnsd.000036
CONTACT
Cristina Ene, PhD Student
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of
Psychology
cristina-adina.ene@drd.unibuc.ro