Vocal arousal: a physiological correlate of body distress in women with overweight and obesity.

Abstract

Numerous studies highlight the relevance of body image in the development and maintenance of overweight and obesity mostly using self-reported data. Given the importance of physiological assessment methods, the present study aimed at investigating vocally encoded emotional arousal as a correlate of body distress in women with overweight and obesity. Cognitions of women with overweight and obesity (OW; n = 22) as well as normal weight controls (NW; n = 22) were assessed by means of a thought-sampling procedure during a mirror exposure and a control condition. Fundamental frequency (f0) as a marker of vocally encoded emotional arousal as well as verbalized body-related cognitions were analyzed during this experimental task. A stronger increase in f0 between the control and the mirror exposure condition was found in OW compared to NW. Furthermore, there were significant positive correlations between vocally encoded emotional arousal and various measures of body image. The findings support the utility of vocally encoded emotional arousal as an objective physiological correlate of the evaluative dimension of body image in women with overweight and obesity. Level I, experimental study.