Effects of body shame on poor health decisions: The mediating role of body responsiveness

Body shame predicts decisions to engage in appearance-improving behaviors that compromise health, suggesting that body shame may promote the devaluing of health in service of appearance. Furthermore, body shame may drive such decisions by diminishing body responsiveness, or the valuing of health-related bodily functions. Two studies tested these ideas in undergraduate students. In Study 1 (cross-sectional), trait body shame predicted decisions to improve appearance at the expense of health, and low body responsiveness mediated this relationship, controlling for BMI and gender. In Study 2 (experimental), body shame was induced and state body shame, state body responsiveness, and the same poor health decisions were measured. State body shame and diminished state body responsiveness mediated the relationship between experimental condition and poor health decisions, controlling for trait body shame, BMI, and gender. These studies demonstrate that body shame may promote the devaluing of health via the mechanism of diminished body responsiveness.