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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Validation of a Psychosocial Intervention on Body Image in Older People: An Experimental Design

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Published on: May 31, 2021

Absence of Subliminal Body-Image Priming Effects in Anorexia Nervosa.

Jana Boettner¹, Benjamin Mosch¹, Sabine Steins-Loeber²

¹Clinical and Experimental Behavioral Medicine, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, LWL University Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.

The International Journal of Eating Disorders

|June 11, 2026

Summary

Subliminal body cues do not alter how women with anorexia nervosa (AN) evaluate bodies, suggesting their negative body image stems from stable, internal biases rather than fleeting external stimuli.

Keywords:

anorexia nervosa automatic evaluation body representation cognitive–affective processes eating disorders implicit processing priming subliminal

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Published on: October 22, 2015

Area of Science:

Cognitive neuroscience
Clinical psychology
Eating disorder research

Background:

Distorted body representation is a hallmark of anorexia nervosa (AN).
Automatic processing of body cues may influence body image in AN.
Previous research suggests automatic processing contributes to body image disturbances.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if subliminal body-image cues modulate explicit body evaluations in women with AN compared to healthy controls (HC).
To test the role of automatic processing in body representation within AN.

Main Methods:

Seventy-eight women (41 AN, 37 HC) participated in a subliminal priming task.
Participants rated normal-weight female bodies after subliminal exposure to different body weight primes.
Priming effects were analyzed using bias scores and absolute ratings via mixed-design ANOVAs.

Main Results:

No significant priming effect was found, indicating subliminal cues did not modulate evaluations in the AN group.
Participants with AN consistently provided more negative absolute ratings than HC across all conditions.
Priming effects, where observed, were small in magnitude.

Conclusions:

Explicit body evaluations in AN are driven by stable, internal evaluative baselines.
These baselines operate independently of brief, subliminally presented cues.
Findings highlight the resilience of body-related evaluative processes in AN.