Abstract
Prior research on non-clinical samples has lent support to the sexual competition hypothesis for eating disorders (SCH) where the drive for thinness can be seen as an originally adaptive strategy for women to preserve a nubile female shape, which, when driven to an extreme, may cause eating disorders. Restrictive versus impulsive eating behavior may also be relevant for individual differences in allocation of resources to either mating effort or somatic growth, reflected in an evolutionary concept called “Life History Theory” (LHT). In this study, we aimed to test the SCH and predictions from LHT in female patients with clinically manifest eating disorders. Accordingly, 20 women diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (AN), 20 with bulimia nervosa (BN), and 29 age-matched controls completed a package of questionnaires comprising measures for behavioral features and attitudes related to eating behavior, intrasexual competition, life history strategy, executive functioning and mating effort. In line with predictions, we found that relatively faster life history strategies were associated with poorer executive functioning, lower perceived own mate value, greater intrasexual competition for mates but not for status, and, in part, with greater disordered eating behavior. Comparisons between AN and BN revealed that individuals with BN tended to pursue a “fast” life history strategy, whereas people with AN were more similar to controls in pursuing a “slow” life history strategy. Moreover, intrasexual competition for mates was significantly predicted by the severity of disordered eating behavior. Together, our findings lend partial support to the SCH for eating disorders. We discuss the implications and limitations of our study findings.
Highlights
Anorexia nervosa (AN) and Bulimia nervosa (BN) are diagnostic categories of eating disorders according to ICD-10 and DSM-5 classifications
Data obtained in previous studies on non-clinical samples indicated that intrasexual competition, especially for mates, is associated with disordered eating behavior and that slow life history strategy may have a protective effect on disordered eating behavior
The Arizona Life History Battery (ALHB) score correlated with executive functioning (BRIEF), mate value, intrasexual competition for mates, and eating disorder. These findings suggest that people with BN displayed signs of a fast life history strategy, whereas individuals with AN did not differ from controls on most life history scores, except in executive functioning and perceived mate value, as discussed below
Summary
Anorexia nervosa (AN) and Bulimia nervosa (BN) are diagnostic categories of eating disorders according to ICD-10 and DSM-5 classifications. Evolutionary Psychology of Eating Disorders (World Health Organization, 1993; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Eating disorders can prove difficult to treat with 50% remission rates for AN and 75% for BN at 10 years follow up (Keel and Brown, 2010). AN is considered to have the highest mortality rate among mental disorders (Harris and Barraclough, 1998) with 5.9% of cases resulting in a fatal outcome (Fichter and Quadflieg, 2016). This clinically unsatisfactory state of affairs results, at least in part, from the fact that the etiology of eating disorders remains poorly understood
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