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Confalonieri, L.1, 3, 4 , Ruggiero, G.M.1Alighieri, S.2, Sacco, M.,1 Cattaneo, S.11Studi Cognitivi, Milan2 Studi Cognitivi, Modena 3 Department of Human Sciences “Riccardo Massa”, University of Milan Bicocca, Milan4 Mental Health Department, A.O. “Guido Salvini”, Garbagnate M., ItalyEating Disorder as illusory compensation to the sense of lack of control and obsession for a self-esteem perceived as perfectionistically inadequate; this illusory compensation gets displaced onto controlling eating and body shape (Fairburn, Shafran, & Cooper, 1999). Association between perfectionism and eating disorders, mediated by low perception of control and low-self esteem Mainly verified by correlational studies using questionnaires (Sassaroli, Gallucci, & Ruggiero, 2008; Sassaroli & Ruggiero, 2010)
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INTUITIVE HEURISTIC BINDING INTUITIVE HEURISTIC BINDING PERFECTIONISM, CONTROL AND PERFECTIONISM, CONTROL AND
BODY SHAPE BELIEFSBODY SHAPE BELIEFS
Confalonieri, L.1, 3, 4 , Ruggiero, G.M.1
Alighieri, S.2, Sacco, M.,1 Cattaneo, S.1
1Studi Cognitivi, Milan2 Studi Cognitivi, Modena
3 Department of Human Sciences “Riccardo Massa”, University of Milan Bicocca, Milan
4 Mental Health Department, A.O. “Guido Salvini”, Garbagnate M., Italy
212/04/23 L. Confalonieri
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
One of the constraint of human cognitive functioning is
categorization and
assessment of probability that certain token (events, features, exemplars) belong to a type/category
Extentional rational formal reasoning
based on laws of probability: e.g. Conjunction rule:
P (A&B) < P (B)
(Kyburg, 1983; Zadeh, 1978)
Intuitive heuristic reasoningIntuitive heuristic reasoning
violation of the conjunction rule and representativeness heuristic:
“the probability of an event is evaluated by of the degree of correspondence between an instance (token) and a category (type)”; Tversky & Kahneman, 1983
312/04/23 L. Confalonieri
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKRepresentativeness Heuristic
To assess the probability that Linda belong to a category (feminist, bank-teller) individuals evaluate the
TIPICALITY OF LINDA’S DESCRIPTION RELATIVE TO DIFFERENT CATEGORIES:
• highest typicality for “feminist” (A)
•“Bank-teller (B) & feminist (A)” HIGHER TYPICALITY than “Bank-teller” (B)
Probability (A&B) “Bank teller & feminist” HEURISTICALLI GREATER THAN P(B) “Bank-teller”
VIOLATION OF CONJUCTION RULE
?“Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeplyconcerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations”
Bank-teller Teacher Feminist Bookseller Feminist & Bank-teller
412/04/23 L. Confalonieri
Eating Disorder as illusory compensation to the sense of lack of control and obsession for a self-esteem perceived as perfectionistically inadequate; this illusory compensation gets displaced onto controlling eating and body shape (Fairburn, Shafran, & Cooper, 1999).
Association between perfectionism and eating disorders, mediated by low perception of control and low-self esteem
Mainly verified by correlational studies using questionnaires (Sassaroli, Gallucci, & Ruggiero, 2008; Sassaroli & Ruggiero, 2010)
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
512/04/23 L. Confalonieri
If correlation studies highlight the association between perfectionism and eating disorders mediated by low
perception of control and low-self esteem,
Do heuristic processes exist which generate cognitive prototypes associating perfectionist
personality and belief of body thinness ?
RESEARCH QUESTION
Which belief about body shape has greater probability to be associated to a
perfectionist personality prototype?
612/04/23 L. Confalonieri
GOAL and HYPOTHESIS
Goal: Verify the existence of intuitive heuristics binding pathologic perfectionism, beliefs on body shape and control exerted in everyday experiential domain/situations
Hypothesis: We hypothesized that prototypes of perfectionist and controlling personality would be associated with higher probability to body-shape belief of thinness than to overweight body shape belief (heuristic content)
This heuristic content originates from intuitive heuristic cognitive processes more than from formal extensional reasoning
712/04/23 L. Confalonieri
METHOD
Exploratory study
Sample: n. 21 healthy Caucasian females, mean age = 18 y.o. (s.d.= 0,66 y.o.)
Task: modified version of Kahneman & Tversky (1982) task for the assessment of probability in social perception
• Introduction of personality sketches of pathologic perfectionism (personal high standards, concern over mistakes; Frost et al., 1990)
• Assess the probability of randomized sentences regarding the person described in the sketch:
sentence rationally coherent to the profile: “the person controls to achieve perfectionist standards”
sentence about body-shape of thinness: “the person is thin”
sentence about body-shape of overweight: “the person is overweight”
sentence rationally coherent to profile (controlling) and thinness
sentence rationally coherent to profile (controlling) and overweight
812/04/23 L. Confalonieri
Sylvia cannot stop to perfectly tidy up her house control: sentence rationally coherent with the profile
Sylvia is overweight overweight body shape
Sylvia is thin thinness body shape
Sylvia is overweight and cannot stop to perfectly tidy up her house control (sentence rationally coherent with the profile) + overweight
Sylvia is thin and cannot stop to perfectly tidy up her house control (sentence rationally coherent with the profile) + thin
Sylvia is 33 y.o. and she is employed in a multinational corporation. She does not tolerate untidiness and dirty at home and in the office; she likes
have everything organized and exactly tidy. Entering in her house it seems to be in a picture of furniture fashion magazine. For Sylvia, being extremely tidy, clean and organized is crucial for being a worthy person.
3 randomized perfectionist personality sketches in cleaning and work domains.
EXAMPLE:
912/04/23 L. Confalonieri
ENCOURAGING RESULTS
• “Controlling tidiness” considered of highest probability (sig .002): sentence rationally coherent
• “Thin” more probable than “Overweight” (sig .000): intuitive associative heuristic
• “Thin and controlling tidiness” and “Controlling tidiness” are considered similarly probable (sig .737): intuitive heuristic prevailing on conjunction probability rule !
• “Thin” considered more probable than “Overweight and controlling tidiness” (sig .000): even with a rationally coherent cue subjects assess more probable “Thin” than “Overweight and controlling tidiness”
Lower scores = higher probability
3,9
8,15
1,812,48
7,38
0
2
4
6
8
10
Pro
bab
ility
Sylvia thin
Sylvia overw eight
Sylvia controlling tidiness
Sylvia thin and controlling
Sylvia overw eight andcontrolling
P >
P <
1012/04/23 L. Confalonieri
… RESULTS
● “Controlling documents” considered of highest probability (sig .001): sentence rationally coherent
● “Thin” assessed as more probable than “Overweight” BUT NOT STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT
Lower scores = higher probability
5,52
6,81
1,90
4,81 5,05
0,00
1,00
2,00
3,00
4,00
5,00
6,00
7,00
8,00
9,00
10,00P
rob
abil
ity
Veronica thin
Veronica overweight
Veronica controllingdocuments
Veronica thin andcontrolling
Veronica overweight andcontrolling
P >
P <
1112/04/23 L. Confalonieri
… RESULTS
•“Controlling article” considered of highest probability (sig .000): sentence rationally coherent
• “Thin” assessed as slightly more probable than “Overweight”
BUT NOT STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT
5,766,24
1,89
5,145,57
0,00
1,00
2,00
3,00
4,00
5,00
6,00
7,00
8,00
9,00
10,00P
rob
abil
ity
Jessica thin
Jessica overweight
Jessica controlling thearticle
Jessica thin andcontrolling
Jessica overweight andcontrollingP >
P <
Lower scores = higher probability
1212/04/23 L. Confalonieri
• Associative binding between body-shape belief of thinness and perfectionism in the domain of “cleaning and hygiene” but not in the professional domain: higher salience and typicality of body-shape belief of thinness for the “cleaning perfectionism” than “professional perfectionism”
• Non-clinical young females show intuitive heuristics associating the prototype of perfectionist personality to body-shape beliefs of thinness, in cleaning domain
• Prevalence of intuitive heuristics on extensional rational reasoning: greater attention and salience to the belief of body thinness than to the rational cue coherent to the perfectionist profile (“controlling”): selective attention on thinness that leads to ignore even the rational coherent cue if associated to overweight (“controlling and overweight”)
• Intuitive heuristic prevailing on conjunction probability rule: “Controlling tidiness” and “Thin and controlling tidiness” equally probable even if “Thin and controlling tidiness”: the conjunction can be more representative thanone of its constituents
DISCUSSION: WHAT DO RESULTS TELL US?
1312/04/23 L. Confalonieri
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Enlargement of non-clinical sample
Enlargement to clinical Eating Disorder sample
Comparison with healthy young males
Moderator effects of “perfectionism” and “perception and desire of control”, measured via MPS (Frost et al., 1990) and ACQ-R (Kyrios, 2003) on the occurrence of heuristics and prototypes associating perfectionism and thinness
1412/04/23 L. Confalonieri