An examination of body categorization and sequential dependency of male bodies

![CDATA[This study aimed to (1) determine the perceptual categorization point of subjective equivalence (PSE) for skinny/fat, and scrawny/muscular male bodies and whether individual psychological and biophysical factors influence perceptual categorization of these body types. Further, this study aimed to (2) examine serial dependencies on perceptual body categorization judgments. Sixty male undergraduate students completed a forced-choice dichotomous body categorization task in which they were exposed to multiple images of male bodies varying in body fat percentage and muscularity. Their task was to categorize these bodies as skinny or fat, or scrawny or muscular. Various anthropometric data and self-report measures of body dissatisfaction, and eating disorder symptomology were collected. Associations between physiological and psychological factors, and body categorization decisions were examined through correlational analyses. This included bivariate correlational analyses between PSEs and weight classes, body dissatisfaction, and eating disorder symptomology. Further, t-tests were used to examine serial dependencies on perceptual body categorization judgments. The implications of these results for theories of body-related cognitive and affective biases and eating disorders will be discussed.]]